Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Present India is governed by Nathuram Godse’s legacy. Hatred is its fundamental driving force. The organisation that shaped the thoughts of Godse (and Modi as well) re-emerged on the centre stage since Modi took charge in Delhi eight years ago. That is quite natural; cultures have a tendency to revive themselves more strongly than in the original version. The New Yorker wrote on 5 Mar 2017 that since Modi became the Prime Minister, “the militant group (RSS) has been legitimized and grown exponentially more powerful.” The article titled ‘ The Violent Toll of Hindu Nationalism ’ was written three years after Modi strode on the red carpet to Sansad Bhavan, having made a grandiose display of humility that he never had by falling prostrate at the entrance. Three years and “nothing to show in terms of economy and development,” said the New Yorker . Nothing worthwhile to show. So religious nationalism became Modi’s only effective platform. Modi’s hatred of Muslims was already legendary

  Imposition of a language is also an imposition of a culture as well as history and even emotions. Language never comes alone. It is an enormous package burdened with a heavy baggage. India’s present rulers cannot be unaware of it. Nevertheless, they are hellbent on imposing Hindi on the entire nation. In the 37 th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee on 8 April 2022, Amit Shah declared majestically that Hindi would be made compulsory in all schools of the Northeast till class 10. 22,000 teachers were already recruited to teach Hindi to the Northeasterners, the Home Minister said. He also exhorted all Indians to use Hindi instead of English for communication among people whose mother tongues are different. “One nation, one language” is a pet slogan of Amit Shah’s. He raised it rather vociferously in June 2019, soon after the Draft New Education Policy was made public. The irony would not have been lost on those who were following the principles of the NEP. P

One of the many mothers and daughters in India discarded by families because the woman gave birth to a girl child.  7000 girls are killed in their mothers’ wombs every day in India, according to various estimates. 63 million women were never born in India because of this phenomenon of female foeticide. Killing the girl in the mother’s womb became common in India from the time the technology for sex determination of foetuses arrived. In this country of Himalayan paradoxes, women get odes composed to their gloriousness on the one hand, and they are driven to the worst possible edges of survival on the other. In which country will you find so many goddesses? And that too fire-spitting goddesses like Kali and graceful killers like Durga! There is so much empowerment of women in India’s divine milieu. Why is the story on the ground just the reverse? Why is there so much discrimination against women in the country? “India is the only large country where more girls die than boys,” says

Media Watch India Today has dedicated almost the entire issue [dated 6 June 2022] to Mr Narendra Modi who is completing eight years in power at the Centre. It has outdone last week’s Open in singing Modi’s panegyrics. Modi has taken India a long way, according to the periodical, with an unmatched vision. He revoked Article 370, the Supreme Court issued the verdict in favour of the Ayodhya Temple, and the Citizenship Act was amended. Modi took the country forward by leaps and bounds in economy, home affairs, foreign affairs, roads and infrastructure, defence, industries, sports, and so on. Privatisation of Public Sector Units is seen by India Today as a “radical long-term goal that will fortify the metabolism of the Indian economy.” India Today is of the view that Modi tided the country over many a disastrous hurdle like the pandemic which saw the largest exodus within the country after the Partition and the economic woes caused by the Ukraine War. Aroon Purie, the editor, adds j

“if Ram Rajya comes, we will completely ban the Urdu language,” says the BJP’s Telangana state chief B S Kumar. Only Urdu? That was the first question which arose in my mind. Kumar’s party has been demolishing mosques and churches in order to construct temples for Lord Rama. It has been killing people who are supposedly enemies of Lord Rama. Some people were lucky to escape death by the skin of their teeth. People’s dresses, food, languages, cultures, and so on are being assaulted for the sake of Lord Rama. Anyone who knows Rama will also know that the Lord must be wondering how some people who claim to be his fans or devotees have come to imagine him as such a bloodthirsty monster. He must be longing to run away along with the hundreds of thousands of Indians who have chosen to leave India permanently and settle down in better countries. In April 2014, a month before Modi became India’s Prime Minister, I wrote a story titled Sarayu’s Sorrow . Lord Rama sits on the bank of the

Media Watch The Week this time chooses to give us some “life lessons” from a few successful Indians one of whom is Narayana Murthy. According to Murthy, a country like India where poverty is a glaring problem, the government’s chief concern should be job creation. But the government does not create jobs. It is only private entrepreneurs who can do that. The government should provide “incentivising environment” to the entrepreneurs. India seems to be more interested in entertaining the citizens with history’s blunders. The Gyanvapi mosque dominated the country’s politics last week. Mosques and temples are consuming India’s energy and time with no productive output whatever. When prices of essential things are reaching the skies and life is becoming an ordeal, it is easy to divert people’s attention using some red herring or a wild goose chase. India now seems to be specialising in red herrings and wild geese.  India Today The India Today’s Big Story this week is on Gyanvapi. Th

Last year India arrested a stand-up comic for a joke that he didn’t tell. The Time reported that Munawar Iqbal Faruqui was all set to enter the best year of his life hitherto with subscription to his YouTube channel crossing 500,000. On the evening of the New Year’s day in 2021, a group of nationalists put an end to Faruqui’s jokes. Soon he was arrested by the police for a joke that he didn’t crack. They said he would crack jokes that might hurt Hindu sentiments! Faruqui is not the only comic who has been arrested in Modi’s India. From Vir Das to Tanmay Bhatt , quite a few comedians have landed in trouble for the crime of possessing a sense of humour. Laughter is banished from nationalist India. The latest is a letter written by a Press Information Bureau official to the editor of the Deccan Herald for the newspaper’s subtle sense of humour. The following image speaks for itself.  The loss of laughter is the biggest calamity that can befall a nation, I think. There are too