Shaktikanta Das, the current Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has been named Governor of the Year for the Asia-Pacific region by Central Banking, a global central banking forum. The award recognizes Das’s outstanding leadership and contributions to the Indian economy during his tenure as RBI governor.
Shaktikanta Das has been credited with implementing a range of policies aimed at stabilizing the Indian economy and supporting growth. These include measures to improve the availability of credit, strengthen the banking sector, and manage inflation. It is worth noting that Shaktikanta Das is a seasoned bureaucrat with over 37 years of experience in various positions in the Indian government, including as the Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs and the Revenue Secretary. He was appointed as the RBI Governor in December 2018.
This comes as a snub to the likes of Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu, PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan, who is known for making personal remarks against anyone he disagrees with.
Two minute silence for detractors who said MA History grad can’t handle the RBI role https://t.co/cQOeadyiFy
In a tweet he made in 2019, he made fun of the decision to select an ex-IAS (Shaktikanta Das) with a degree in history over someone with a Ph.D. in economics.
Hmm..
Stack RBI board w/ some who have no rudimentary “book knowledge” of Economics
Replace Ph.D. (Economics) from esteemed University with pliant ex-IAS M.A (History) as Governor
Change $ accounting policy to raid reserves at will
In another tweet in 2020, he ridiculed the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Shaktikanta Das, once again for his educational qualifications amidst the Covid crisis, that someone with “an MA History may not be the ideal RBI Governor”.
Hmm..it’s almost as if, in a country of ~1.4 Bn people, where growth had slid 9 qtrs in a row pre-COVID19, & the worst Pandemic in 100 yrs caused worst economic crash in the WORLD, & India’s history..
The Finance Minister’s statement sparked a debate on social media, with many criticizing him for his remarks.
PTR has a very long history of being a rabble-rouser on Twitter and blocking anyone who questions his double standards left, right, and centre.
Even recently, PTR hounded a female journalist, Sandhya Ravishankar on Twitter on the migrant workers’ issue, and against The Hindu Publishing Group’s Chairperson Malini Parthasarathy who had tweeted about Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi’s clarification on the Tamil Nadu versus Thamizhagam debate.
He had also made derogatory remarks about business news journalist Chandra R Srikanth, targeting her based on her caste identity.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
Tejasvi Surya, the President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Bengaluru South constituency, has been awarded the Best Debutant Parliamentarian award from the Lokmat Parliamentary Awards.
Tejasvi Surya was presented the award at a ceremony held on March 14, 2023, in New Delhi by Shri. Ramnath Kovind.
The Lokmat Parliamentary Awards recognise and honour outstanding achievements and contributions of Members of Parliament across various categories. Tejasvi Surya was selected for the Best Debutant Parliamentarian award for his exceptional performance in the Parliament since being elected as a first-time MP in the 2019 General Elections.
Tejasvi Surya is a Swayamsevak and a lawyer, he was elected as MP at the age of 28 and he has been the President of the BJP’s Youth Wing since 2020.
Upon receiving the award, Tejasvi Surya expressed his gratitude and thanked PM Narendra Modi, the BJP leadership, party workers, and the citizens of Bangalore South Lok Sabha Constituency.
Tamil Nadu BJP President tweeted congratulating him for the achievement.
Congratulations to @BJYM President & Bengaluru South MP Thiru @Tejasvi_Surya avl for receiving the award for the Best Debutant Parliamentarian from Lokmat Parliamentary Awards, recognition for being the voice of the people of his Constituency! pic.twitter.com/P778oKEEoa
Tejasvi Surya has been a vocal and active MP in the Parliament and has raised several important issues related to the welfare of his constituents and the country at large. He has also been actively involved in the BJYM, the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and has played a crucial role in mobilising and energizing the youth toward the BJP’s vision of building a strong and prosperous India.
The Awards were conceived in 2017 and boasts a distinguished jury headed by NCP President, Sharad Pawar that selects the awardees. The Lokmat Parliamentary Awards is becoming a significant platform for recognizing and rewarding excellence in parliamentary work. With this award, Tejasvi Surya joins the ranks of distinguished parliamentarians such as former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh, Lal Krishna Advani, Hema Malini, Meenakshi Lekhi, who have been recognized for their exceptional contributions to the country’s legislative process.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
Recently there was a campaign on social media that a family had been expelled from Devalampallepalem village of Singarayakonda Mandal, Prakasam District, Andhra Pradesh, for accepting Christianity and building a church on their plot of land.
After the video clip with a Telugu TV channel logo became viral, some pastors and self-proclaimed Christian leaders initiated large-scale agitation. When Nijam Today investigated the matter, it came to light that the viral video clip of the ex-communication of a family was actually from the year 2018. Some people made it viral on social media by grabbing a five-year-old video clip portraying it as a recent incident.
Nijam Today even investigated the veracity of the incident to know whether that family was excommunicated by the villagers for believing in Jesus Christ. In this regard, Nijam Today has obtained recent video statements by the Devalopallepalem villagers condemning the allegations against the entire village on Social Media. The village is made up predominantly of persons from the fishermen’s community. So what is the truth? Has there been a social boycott of a Christian-converted family in the said village?
As per the statements of the villagers, it has come to light that some people who converted to Christianity occupied the land belonging to the Ram temple in the village in 2017 and built a church illegally. After two years, the members of that Church were split into two, and one of the members, named Mr Nagaraju, established a new church, brought a pastor named Yona from another area, and started running his new Church. This is where the problem started.
According to the villagers, the Pastor named Yona used to trouble the villagers through the indiscriminate use of loudspeakers around the clock. He used to conduct all-night prayers with shrieks and screams starting from midnight. The villagers used to wake up in shock from sleep after being disturbed by these all-night prayers. The sick, the elderly and, in particular, students preparing for various examinations were worst affected. All pleas of villagers to stop all-night prayers or do night prayers without loudspeakers fell on deaf ears.
Villagers also said that Pastor Yona started misbehaving with the village women. He said that only young women should come for special gatherings for all-night gatherings. In addition, Pastor Yona used to claim that Jesus Christ would enter his body and speak through him. This attracted many women who fell for his false claims. The women who came under his trance started neglecting their families and routine domestic work and started to spend more and more time inside the church, in the company of Pastor Yona.
As the activities and all-night prayers of Pastor Yona led to marital discord and family disputes, Nagaraju, who established a new church and invited Pastor Yona from outside, was called and asked not to bring Pastor Yona to the village but to have someone else pray with the Pastor. Nagaraju rejected the proposal outright, leading to quarrels and disputes in the village. As a result, Nagaraju left the village and complained to the local police station that the villagers had expelled him for converting to Christianity.
Five years have passed since this incident happened. The police enquired into Nagaraju’s allegations and concluded his complaint had no truth. They tried to bring a truce between both sides, but Nagaraju insisted that a case be registered. Ever since Nagaraju filed a false complaint against the villagers, the revenue and police officials have arranged several meetings in the village and assured Nagaraju that he is free to live in the village and practice the religion of his choice. The only condition of the villagers was that Pastor Yona should not come to the village to conduct prayers in the church. But Nagaraju used to repeatedly raise the false accusation that he would be beaten up if he goes to the village. The villagers called Nagaraju several times to return to the village and resume his everyday life, but he declined their offer. It is worth noting that Nagaraju’s family members were present in the village during the recent Sankranti celebrations held in January 2023.
The villagers cautioned that they would move criminal proceedings against the self-proclaimed Christian leaders and pastors if they continue to sully the name of their village by making false accusations of ex-communication of Christians from the village.
This article was originally published in Nijam Today and has been republished here with permission.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
In yet another instance of DMK ministers abusing common people, DMK Minister Ponmudi yelled at a woman to ‘shut up’ when she came to him to express her grievances.
Speaking at a gathering in Tirukovilur, Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister Ponmudi stated that 22 months have passed since their election to office and that the government is currently working on multiple initiatives at once, with work being done both in villages and cities.
He added that, with KN Nehru as Minister for Municipal Administration, Chief Minister MK Stalin has been doing a lot of work, whether in Chennai, Thirukovilu, or Vizhupuram.
As Minister Ponmudi was speaking, a woman got up and said she wanted to give him a petition. Minister Ponmudi became enraged and mocked the lady, yelling at her, “shut up and sit down!” in a derogatory voice.
After realizing that he was displaying his anger to a woman in public, Ponmudi attempted to downplay the incident by asking irrelevant questions to the woman. Ponmudi enquired about her husband from the women. When she said her husband had passed away, Ponmudi responded with a laugh, “He has passed away? So sad.”
This is not the first time that Ponmudi has spoken like this in public. A few days ago, at a function in Villupuram, Ponmudi said to the women who had expressed their grievances, “As if you people of this village voted for me! Coming and questioning me! Sit down!” In another instance, Ponmudi also insulted women who were using the free bus service by referring to them as “OC Bus” users.
While working on unraveling the web of activist-charities who serve George Soros’ ends in India, The Lede found one name popping up repeatedly as an FCRA donor to multiple Soros-affiliated organisations.
For instance, the National Foundation for India (NFI), led by Biraj Patnaik , a mentee of Open Society Foundation’s Salil Shetty, has received Rs 9.4 crore from this donor between 2015-16 and 2019-20.
The donor appeared innocuous – Hans Foundation, based in Gurugram and Dehradun and set up in 2009 as “a Public Charitable Trust that provides funding support to Not-for-Profit organizations in India. The main areas of intervention for the organization are; Education, Health, Livelihoods and Disability.”
A bit of digging yielded another trust based in Manhattan – Rural India Supporting Trust (RIST) – set up in 2007 by “two families with concerns about the well-being of communities in India. In order to address these matters, RIST awards grants to organizations that work on solutions to societal inequities and poverty.”
Both Hans and RIST were founded by the same people and are also deeply interconnected in other ways, which we shall see later on in this piece.
Next, The Lede followed the money. What we found was astounding.
A whopping Rs 188 crore had been donated by RIST to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust between 2011-12 and 2018-19. The trustees of the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust are former Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi along with two others. The donations stopped after 2018-19.
RIST has also donated Rs 262 crore to Hans Foundation in two transactions. In 2014-15, RIST donated Rs 120 crore to Hans and in 2015-16 the donation was Rs 142 crore.
So who are these mysterious donors who have such large hearts and wallets? Their story is straight out of a Bollywood potboiler.
Hans Foundation & The Maharajs
The story begins with a death – on July 19, 1966, Shri Hans ji Maharaj, a popular spiritual guru in Dehradun passed away without naming his successor.
Hans ji Maharaj, born Hans Ram Singh Rawat, had four sons – Satpal Singh Rawat, Mahipal Singh Rawat, Dharampal Singh Rawat and Prempal Singh Rawat. He also had a daughter from his first wife.
His second wife Rajeshwari Devi aspired to succeed him but the other sants (saints) who surrounded the original Guru ji refused to make a woman the Guru.
Pic courtesy: www.prem-rawat-bio.org
As the discussion over succession was hotly debated inside the house on the 13th day after Hans ji’s passing, one sant quietly took the youngest son – Prempal Singh Rawat – outside to the waiting and anguished devotees, placed a crown on the 8-year-old child and announced that he was the next Guru ji.
Pic courtesy: www.prem-rawat-bio.org
Hearing the commotion, mother Rajeshwari Devi and the other sons and sants ran out to witness people falling all over themselves to touch the tiny feet of the new Guru ji.
And thus Maharaji, as he came to be known later, was born.
Devotees would throng as the chubby child Guru danced like his father, dressed like Lord Krishna and ate copious amounts of ice-cream while they touched and kissed his feet in reverence.
Pic courtesy: www.prem-rawat-bio.org
Pic courtesy: www.prem-rawat-bio.org
Prempal Heads To The West
On June 17, 1971, Prempal Singh Rawat, then 14 years old, made his first trip outside of India to London. There, he addressed a crowd of British and Indian devotees to mixed reactions.
Exactly a month later, against the wishes of his mother and family, Prempal Rawat left for Los Angeles with a couple of loyalists in tow.
This intrepid group set up the Divine Light Mission. The counter-culture of the time produced a lot of disciples who followed Prempal Singh Rawat’s promise of Knowledge and World Peace.
Pic courtesy: www.prem-rawat-bio.org
Pic courtesy: www.prem-rawat-bio.org
Pic courtesy: www.prem-rawat-bio.org
A teenager with abundant wealth is bound to go off the rails and Prempal did just that. At the age of 16, he married his American secretary. When he was 17 years old, his mother disowned him, alleging that he had begun to eat meat, consumed drugs and alcohol and was consorting with women which went against every grain of his father’s teachings.
Prempal’s Extraordinary Wealth
Prempal’s followers and wealth grew abundantly. He registered a couple of corporations called Seva Corporation and Seva Corporation of America in Delaware. Through these, he purchased properties and expensive jets, including the Gulfstream of the late Sheikh of Jordan which cost him $40 million.
Between 1978 and 1999, Seva Corporation and its sister concern bought properties in Malibu, California and Los Angeles, along with a helicopter, a glider and an aircraft.
A mega event called Millennium ‘73 was organised which almost bankrupted the organisation. Prempal Rawat called it “the most holy and significant event in human history” and urged all of his devotees to attend. Held at the Houston Astrodome, some 20,000 devotees, called ‘premies’ attended the event expecting a big miracle or revelation. From that point onwards, his popularity seemed to wane, as we see no evidence of events happening at a similar scale again..
Pic courtesy: www.prem-rawat-bio.org
Over time, Prempal’s speeches and events had less attendance and his followers drastically reduced in numbers.
By 1985, at the age of 27, Prempal Singh Rawat “retired” as a Guru ji. He gave himself the moniker ‘Maharaji’ and became a public speaker instead, calling for donations to his Prem Rawat Foundation. He is now over 60 years of age and lives in Malibu.
To date, there is little information about how the Divine Light Mission was funded, how a minor was allowed into the US without his family’s consent, where all the money to buy properties and aircraft came from and where it all went.
Allegations of drug trafficking and money laundering have been thrown at Prempal Singh Rawat but he does not seem to have been investigated so far by the US authorities.
The Instant Billionaire & RIST
Around the time Prempal was making merry in the US, a young boy and his parents decided to relocate from Lucknow to the US. The head of the wealthy family of three, father Narottam Bhargava, wanted to pursue a PhD in Wharton. So the family packed up and left.
Life in the US was grim as both parents pursued their higher education and young Manoj Bhargava was admitted to a public school. Bright at Math, he managed to get into a better school, Hills, which provided quality education. Princeton beckoned and Manoj joined the prestigious institution only to drop out a year later.
Manoj Bhargava, Founder, Life Essentials LLC
In 1974, Manoj went back to India after dropping out. He lived in the Hanslok Ashram for 12 long years, gathering knowledge and finding a Guru in the second Rawat sibling – better known as Bhole ji Maharaj.
As Prempal Rawat was retiring, Manoj Bhargava returned to the US permanently in 1986. He would spend the next decade dabbling in various jobs – from his father’s plastics business to finding and turning around small struggling businesses. He then sold off his Indiana PVC unit for about $20 million and moved to Detroit.
He tried his hand at creating an anti-hangover pill called Chaser. It did not see the light of day.
In 2003, according to Manoj Bhargava, he struck gold. He found the formula for an energy drink at a natural products fair and launched his energy drink called ‘5-hour Energy’ which went on to become a hot seller. The drink was a product of his firm Living Essentials LLC.
Manoj Bhargava with his 5-Hour Energy Drink
In a few years, he claimed to have become a billionaire and even signed up for the ‘Giving Pledge’ launched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In 2007, he formed a trust – the Rural India Supporting Trust (RIST) – and pledged 99.9% of his wealth for the upliftment of the rural poor.
In 2009, his close association with Bhole ji Maharaj led to the formation of the Hans Foundation. Between 2014 and 2016 alone, RIST donated Rs 262 crore to Hans Foundation.
In 2011, Manoj formed a start-up called Stage 2 Innovations dedicated to finding innovative solutions to the problems of India’s rural population and came up with innovations like the Free Electric – a bicycle which when pedalled for an hour can charge a battery enough to provide light at night for homes without electricity.
He pitched the idea to then Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat who even pedalled the bicycle for a photo op.
Courtesy: Business Standard
In the meanwhile, RIST quietly funded the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust with huge donations totalling Rs 188 crore between 2011-12 and 2018-19.
After 2014, Manoj Bhargava has not been seen much in the public eye. In July 2014, Manoj says he met and spoke with newly installed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about pledging $4 billion towards social causes in India as well as the Free Electric bicycle innovation.
He came out of the meeting disappointed. “He didn’t think I was real,” Manoj is quoted as saying to a reporter from the Business Standard. Modi appears to have remained largely silent and unimpressed with the NRI.
The reticent billionaire who proclaimed himself the richest Indian in America, became a big success story around 2004 and went off the radar in 2014. How he managed to gain his immense wealth in such a short period of time, why he funded the Congress party’s foundation and why he gave so much money to Hans Foundation are all questions that need answers through an investigation.
Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust & Rajiv Gandhi Foundation
In 2013-14, one Sreedhar Potarazu, CEO of VitalSpring, donated around Rs 11.7 lakh to the Trust. Potarazu is a doctor of Indian origin living in America, who was sent to jail in 2017 for swindling $49 million from 174 investors.
Sreedhar Potarazu who was jailed for duping investors of $49 million
Take Rajiv Gandhi Foundation next. This foundation has not received any FCRA donations beyond 2014.
However, in 2005-06, the RGF received Rs 90 lakhs from the Embassy of The People’s Republic of China in India.
Another interesting organisation called Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, Germany, has donated Rs 78.2 lakh to the foundation over a 5-year period between 2005-06 and 2010-11. Friedrich Naumann Stiftung is a liberal think tank that is related to the German Free Democratic Party. Their Board has members from the German Government and senior people in German civil society. The turn-of-20th-century German politician, Friedrich Naumann, after whom the Foundation is named, was an advocate of Germany’s imperial claim over Europe, advocated social Darwinism and was an anti-Semite in the early years of political career. He is also said to have been a founding member of the National Social Association, though not directly related to the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, i.e. the Nazis.
The final question that the Rajiv Gandhi Trust and Foundation trustees need to answer is why they received so much money from such dubious sources.
(This article was originally published in The Lede and has been republished here with permission.)
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
In an interesting development, it has come to light that the Twitter handle of A.J. Manikkanan, MLA of Ulundurpettai, Kallakuruchi district in TN has been liking pornographic posts on the social media platform. This news has sparked a controversy, with many questioning the moral and ethical standards of the MLA and demanding an explanation from him.
Following the revelation, several Twitter users have reportedly saved screenshots of the MLA’s social media activity, which allegedly includes liking posts with explicit or inappropriate content shared by random handles.
The posts that were liked by the MLA’s Twitter handle comprise a range of obscene and vulgar content, including explicit images and videos shared by handles based in both India and abroad. These handles are said to have a history of posting inappropriate content on their profiles.
The MLA later shared a post saying his account had been hacked and that they had raised a complaint with Twitter Support. The tweet also asked followers to “ignore” any likes and comments from that handle.
Subsequently, it was discovered that the MLA’s Twitter handle, Manikkanan, had been removed from the social media platform.
In the wake of this development, several Twitter users have raised questions about the MLA’s performance and accountability with regard to the constituency from which they were elected.
Officials from the Revenue Department of the Tamil Nadu Government sealed 2 more rooms at the Anbu Jothi Ashram after evidence of 35,000 drugs given to Ashram inmates to convert them to Christianity was found there.
A few days ago, the proprietors of Anbu Jothi Ashramam, B Jubin, and J Maria, were arrested by Tamil Nadu police on several charges, including rape, in a village in the Vizhuppuram district. After receiving a complaint from Salim Khan, who had not heard from his father-in-law since August 2021, a team of officials raided the Anbu Jothi Ashram, a home in a village in Vizhupuram. Salim’s father-in-law was admitted to the home in December 2021. Warden Muthumaari, a computer operator, Gopinath, an attendant, and driver Biju have also been booked.
According to the victims, When they attempted to resist, the workers of the home allegedly set on them two ferocious monkeys they were taming. Furthermore, the CBCID police have taken over the investigation into the Anbu Jyoti Ashram case and are currently conducting thorough inquiries.
In this situation, a team led by Dr. Anand, a member of the National Child Welfare Commission, visited the Home at Vizhupuram and conducted an investigation on Wednesday (15th March).
Following this, the team went to Vizhupuram Government Medical College Hospital where they met with the victims and conducted an investigation.
Addressing the press, Dr. RG Anand, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) member, said, “Three teams from Delhi have traveled to Vizhupuram to perform a field study on this issue. In addition to Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, this Ashramam has connections in five other states including Rajasthan, West Bengal, Tripura, Meghalaya, and Nagaland.“
He added, “Only 60 people are permitted to be maintained in this building by the Anbu Jothi Ashram. But more than 140 people are confined in this building. They have been artificially drugged. 35 thousand tablets given to mentally ill persons have been seized. After being drugged they are converted to Christianity. We have requested that authorities look into where they purchased these. The Mundiambakkam Medical College Principal has assured us that a report on the drug’s source will be provided within 15 days.“
He further said, “There are 7 child welfare centers functioning in Villupuram district. 2 of which were working for mentally challenged people. Anbu Jyoti Ashram is one of them. We have locked and sealed its 2 rooms. In order to ensure safety in other shelters, we have ordered the DSP, District Child Welfare Officers to conduct an investigation in person and submit a report. We have also directed that the workers be investigated. The CBCID police are still investigating whether the 35,000 narcotic drugs came from Mundiambakkam Government Medical College Hospital or other hospitals, or states, or countries, and how they acquired them.“
He said, “Also, conversion work has been going on in the Ashramam by doing Christian prayers at night. The mother of the child admitted to the hospital has given a statement on this. By taking sick individuals into a dark room and promising that everything will get better soon, the Ashramam has been pursuing conversion. The CBCID police are investigating about the 15 missing persons in the shelter. Police said that one of them has died, while two others are identified.“
He went on to say, “As the case in this regard is going on in the court, Police have said that they will submit the report after the investigation. The minors and adults admitted here are not mentally challenged. They have been drugged. The ashram has been involved in religious conversion by giving drugs. An investigation is also going on check whether money has been exchanged for this conversion.“
He concluded by saying, “Many women in the Ashramam were sexually harassed. All of this cannot be done by one person, but there may have been some groups involved. Police are trying to find them. We will submit the inquiry report to the commission. Further action will be taken thereafter. We are going to hand over our inquiry report to the Union Ministry in two days.“
The controversy surrounding the Chennai-Salem Expressway project has taken a new turn, with the Road Transport & Highways Ministry stating that the Tamil Nadu government did not object to the project, in response to a question posed by Rajya Sabha MP Anbumani Ramadoss.
DMK Then and Now!!
In a reply to the question, whether TN Govt objected to the Chennai-Salem Expressway. Highway Ministry has replied, “TN Govt didn’t objected the project”.
DMK orchestrated the Drama over the Highway and spreaded the rumor when it was Opposition party. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/FjtwpMGF7o
This is in stark contrast to the DMK’s vehement opposition to the project when it was in the opposition. The party had orchestrated a protest drama and spread baseless rumours about the project, which had caused a stir in the media. However, after assuming power, the DMK government has taken a completely different stance on the matter.
In September 2022, the DMK government reversed its position on the project, stating that it was not opposed to the project itself, but rather to how it was being implemented. The party’s Minister for Public Works, Highways, and Minor Ports, EV Velu, stated that the DMK was well aware of the need for the project and had urged the previous government to settle the issues of farmers before proceeding with the project.
Present CM didn’t opposed Chennai – Salem expressway, when he was LoP. Instead he urged then govt in LA, to settle the issue by paying money to the landowners at market value.
We are not against the project.
Roads need to be widened due to increasing no. of vehicles – Min EV Velu pic.twitter.com/WVT79oybxn
The DMK’s flip-flop or rather “U-turn” on the project has been the subject of much debate, with critics accusing the party of playing politics and causing delays in developmental projects for political gain. The party had made the project into an election issue during the 2019 and 2021 elections, portraying itself as the party for the Tamil people.
Despite the controversy, the AIADMK government had gone ahead and inaugurated the Chennai-Salem Greenfield 8-lane corridor in 2021. The DMK’s opposition to the project had caused a lot of unrest, with people with anti-national interests mobilising large numbers of people to protest against it by spreading baseless rumours.
With the DMK now moving closer to implementing the Chennai-Salem 8 Lane Highway, many are left wondering about the party’s true intentions and whether its opposition to the project was merely a political ploy.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
Thirumurugan Gandhi, alleged human rights activist and May 17 organizations founder, incited violence by saying that a people army should fight RSS until the RSS’s headquarters in Nagpur is removed and heads of those leaders are severed.
He said, “It is a basic question to ask why we should protest against the violence in Tripura while we are in Tamil Nadu. Because violence in Tripura is a warning to us. They (BJP) have demonstrated the type of violence they will unleash if they are on the verge of defeat. Fascist forces cannot exist without authority. Therefore when they are on the verge of losing authority, they will resort to violence in order to reclaim it. This is what has happened in Tripura.”
He added, “The violence was not confined to few places. Instead, violence was unleashed in hundred of places where precision attacks were done. Victims of the violence are Congress party members and Marxist Communist comrades. Comrades have been subjected to brutality by the BJP because they are their ideological rivals. Only because of this they destroyed the Lenin statue as soon as they took power in 2018. This has never happened in any other parts of India.”
He stated, “Members of the Tamil Nadu BJP claimed that once they are in power in Tamil Nadu, the Periyar statue will be demolished in the same manner as the Lenin statue was. The violence that broke out in Tripura was distinct from the violence that occurred in Gujarat and other BJP states where religious minorities were attacked. In Tripura, they attacked the ideological opponents. This violence of BJP gives us a message. The message is that if a situation arises that they will lose 2024 elections, they will unleash Tripura kind of violence through out India.”
He further added, “It is not BJP, but RSS, that has the structure to unleash the violence that we saw in Tripura. It takes an organized structure to unleash a planned violence. It is RSS that has this structure. It is RSS that has planned this statewide violence in Tripura. They used Tripura as a training ground to develop their capacity to use terror throughout India. By holding RSS Shakas all over India, they are building a force resembling a military force.”
Inciting violence he said, “All political and non political organizations should unite for 2024 elections and face them at the place where they have to be faced. We should face them in a manner they understand. We are uniting all organizations through out Tamil Nadu. We should build a people’s army to confront them (RSS) on streets if they unleash violence in Tamil Nadu like they did in Coimbatore.”
He added, “Even if the Tamil Nadu police do not back us, our People’s Army should fight against the RSS on the streets. We will have a clear objective when we hold rallies, but what is the intention of RSS to conduct rallies through out Tamil Nadu. They do not have any objectives for the rally, but their only intention is to show that they have grown in this land.”
He instigated violence by saying, “The next time we see brutality from the BJP or RSS, we should march toward Nagpur (RSS headquarters). We should fight until the RSS’s Headquarters is removed (demolished) from there. The battle must go on until the heads of those poisonous snakes (the RSS/Brahmins) are severed. Communist is capable of that sort of combat.”
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
The Sri Bhramaramba Mallikarjuna Temple of Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh is an important Hindu pilgrimage site and one of India’s twelve Jyotirlingas. The ancient Srisailam temple dates back to the 2nd century per hitherto known records with many claiming an earlier consecration of the sacred Shiva and Shakthi site going back to the times of the Ramayana and the Mahabharat!
The temple is Andhra’s second wealthiest Hindu shrine after the well-known Lord Balaji-Sri Venkateshwara temple at Tirupati. The Srisailam Mallikarjuna ‘Jyothirlinga’ temple is dedicated to the deities Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. This temple is revered by Hindu sects of both Shaivism and Shaktism as it is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva and one of the eighteen Shakti Peethas or centres of spiritual energy for the Mother Goddess.
Presiding Deities
Shiva is revered as Mallikarjuna and is symbolized by the lingam, while his partner Parvati is portrayed as Bhramaramba. The presiding deity in the form of Linga (an iconic form of Shiva) was and continues to be worshipped with the fragrant jasmine flowers (Mallika in Telugu), hence the name of the presiding deity is “Mallikarjuna”. The Sahasra linga (a 1000 linga sculpture) is believed to have been commissioned by Lord Rama himself and five other Lingams are believed to have been commissioned by the Pandavas!
At its location here, near the Srisailam temple at the foothills of the Nallamala hills of the Eastern Ghats, the Krishna River is called the ‘Patala Ganga’. One has to climb down 852 stairs to reach the river. The Shiva Linga is bathed in the water of this river. The main festivals celebrated at the Srisailam temple are Mahashivrathri and Dussehra, owing to the holy site’s principal deities of worship, Shiva and Parvathi.
While the temple is usually in the news for spiritually related reasons, it has been in the news recently for a legal battle of half a century over lands that traditionally belonged to the sacred Jyothirlinga site and temple.
Temple Land Usurped?
A few days ago, it was reported that the AP forest department has agreed to transfer about 4,500 acres of land worth over 2,000 crores in the vicinity of the Nallamala reserve forest to the Srisailam temple. While a section of A.P and Telangana’s Hindu citizenry was happy with the end of an unjust 50-year-old legal tussle for the temple’s rights over its endowment lands, many others suspected the A.P government of possible ulterior motives in transferring the lands back to the temple. Readers and netizens questioned if some of the land belonging to the temple was being given back to it because the Forest Department is arguably audited better and is under higher scrutiny than most Hindu temples in the state government’s control. The largest of Andhra’s temples, the most popular and significant in terms of revenue are overseen and administered by the state government, much like the scenario in neighboring Tamil Nadu and a few other Indian states.
Hindus in the two Telugu states are asking the same questions that Hindu groups in Tamil Nadu have been protesting about for a while now – why are Hindu temples in the control of state governments while churches and mosques are not and how can this be considered “secular” and fair in a country like India?
Suspicions On Jagan
Citizens are suspicious about current A.P chief minister Jagan Reddy’s real intentions, based on his unsavoury track record of several high-profile complaints and cases against him and members of his family for land grabbing, selling government land including protected areas, money laundering, exploitation of forests and protected land for minerals and metals etc. Jagan Reddy and his father before him were involved in the infamous Andhra-Karnataka border Iron-Ore Mining Scam of the Gaali Janardhan Reddy family.
Uranium Reserves
The Srisailam Temple is on the Nalamalla hills, a part of the ancient Eastern Ghats mountain range. The famous Tirupati shrine is a part of the Nalamalla hills on its southern border. The forests are known to be a tiger corridor and home to the indigenous hunter-gatherer Chenchu tribe. The hills are reported to be one of the largest known reserves of uranium in India. In May 2019, the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research sought permission to conduct a survey and explore the feasibility of uranium-ore mining in the Nallamala forests. In late 2021, this proposal was withdrawn following strong protests from local citizens and environmentalists. The forest range extends into Telangana state as well and while that state’s government initially objected to uranium exploration and possible mining, for various reasons, the Jagan Reddy government did not.
What’s The Future For Lord Shiva And Goddess Parvathi’s Lands?
Are they being discreetly set up for exploitation one way or another? Are the citizens right to worry, given Jagan’s record of corruption and exploitation? Additionally, people point out with concern that Jagan and his family, like his father (Y.S Rajasekara Reddy, a former CM of the united A.P state) and grandfather before him, are converted Christians. Ironically, his father, YSR Reddy died in a mysterious helicopter crash in these very hills of the Nallamala forest range back in 2009, a few months after having allegedly questioned Lord Balaji’s rights over the seven hills that belong to the temple and had allegedly remarked that a hill or two could perhaps, be given to the Christians!
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
