My comment on Wall Street Journal's blog post yesterday."Corruption Allegations Look Set to Disrupt Narendra Modi’s Agenda". I await its publication.

I notice that I am the first to comment.

No surprise, given that the Indian state appears to be staring into the abyss of illegitimacy, that her doltish and corrupt ruling classes have driven her into.

Anybody with even an iota of constitutional sense would have realised by now that the NDA campaign was fuelled by lies.

That India's political system has abused the amenities of a republic to such extreme dysfunction that people can do no more than roll their eyes and change the subject.

Narendra  Modi came to power promising good governance.

Good governance sans legitimacy? Good governance where satraps suspected of stunning venality and heinous crimes bulldoze a rotted and delegitimized  ‘opposition’ ?

Scary!

Since the last couple of years, I have intimated the Rashtrapathi, Prime Minister's Office and the Supreme Court of India about a corrupt judge in the Supreme Court.  http://goo.gl/uDFdr   http://goo.gl/WNw1e 

 

Little has happened  !

Corruption is a well organised conspiracy of silence. Whistleblowers risk their lives. Many are killed.

For close to three decades I have, as an unsupported, conscientious citizen written about, demonstrated and organised against corruption.

Oddly, India's editorial classes have been most prominent among those who have disparaged and muffled my efforts.

Emboldened by the corruption of the Press, the Judiciary, Rashtrapathi Bhavan, the Prime Minister's Office the Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioner have all actively and maliciously conspired to violate my rights, humiliate and hound me.

The Government  and judiciary have dodged my various Right To Information petitions.

A massive, close to three decade long demonstration of the miredness, impotence and destructiveness of India's powers that be.

A former Governor , who I had petitioned for help, turned around and instigated my Apartments' Association to cut off my water supply.

Since April 5 2002, I have had to physically fetch water for my flat every other day .

Prasar Bharathi abused a stretched judiciary by pursuing a silly, motivated litigation that it has continued for decades.

In other words, it is impossible to earn an honest living in India today.

Riches beyond the dreams of avarice, such as for instance, showered on the players and hustlers of cricket, await those willing to violate India's trust.

My "no excuses", ultra peaceful, non partisan, individual sathyagraha against corruption and for the idea of the rule of law in India.  httphttp://goo.gl/qZup7   http://bit.ly/orCEMV

Now in its 25th year.

You failed once and you are failing again. My letter to Shri Bandaru Dattatreya Garu. He has not replied.

Shri Bandaru Dattatreya,

Minister of State (Independent Charge) 

for Labour & Employment

Government of India.                                                                                                        11/18/14

Dear Shri Dattatreya Garu,

I am delighted to convey my heartiest congratulations to you on your well deserved elevation to the Union cabinet.

I have no doubt that with your deep experience and grass roots political reach you would be a valuable asset to the Hon'ble Prime Minister's team .

There is a clear consensus that the massive mandate for the present government is because the people of India and the world at large are exasperated by the huge delays, damage and injustices caused by rampant and pervasive corruption of India's political economy.

During the previous NDA regime, our then AP contingent, including Shri Ch Vidyasagara Rao Garu, Late Shri Bangaru Laxman Garu and your kind self had valiantly tried to ensure that I received a modicum of justice for the gratuitous harassment at the hands of Doordarshan, because of my resistance to, by now well documented, corrupt mores of the Doorsdarshan management.

You had been kind enough to convey me to the late Shri Pramod Mahajan's official residence in your official car and introduce me to him, but he chose to snub all of us.

In other words,while the efforts of the Andhra Pradesh contingent of BJP on my behalf, were undoubtedly, sincere, gracious, memorable and exemplary, they failed.

You failed not because you were wrong, but because you were absolutely and unequivocally right.

You were defeated by forces that were immensely more powerful than you.

Those "Shining India" forces were in turn, decisively repudiated by the people of India and by other circumstances.

I was, unfortunately, in contrast to the earlier enthusiasm,  left to wage a lonely battle , against the prevalent idea that "corruption is a way of life" in India.

And I did that. 

Corruption is a conspiracy of silence.

I have been among the very few Indians, who have written, demonstrated and campaigned against my horrendous mistreatment by Doodrdarshan and all the other authorities in India, the Press, the judiciary, and thus non cooperated against corruption.

You, Shri Vidysagar Rao Garu and others are personally aware that I have had to pay a massive price for my sane, loving, autonomous but lonely stand against corruption.

It is a reflection of the horrifyingly perverse conditions prevailing in our beloved country, that I have been humiliated to the extent of having my water supply cut , encouraged by none other than the Governor of AP's office, since 2002 !

Much has changed since then. The people of India have demonstrated their revulsion against corruption in many ways. 

I hardly need to point out that the mandate that you have received dictates, that the prompt and just resolution of my case, ought to be at the top of your agenda.

You'll recall that in our last meeting a couple of weeks ago in Hyderabad, you  had, despite being aware of my presence, made me cool my heels for hours.

Most unfortunate and quite a contrast to the Dattatreya Garu that I had known .

Finally,you had instructed your assistant, that a proper appointment be fixed -  I had even then, come only with the prior consent of your assistants - in order that we are able to resolve the issues that have been pending since your previous tenure in Delhi.

Alas, I have not heard from you since.

I hope I have been able to clarify the situation as it exists today.

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

With warm regards, I am,

yours sincerely,

Divakar S Natarajan

Urge Pope Francis to abandon the canonization of Junipero Serra.

I signed a petition initiated by the The California Indian Environmental Alliance with the following statement:

I am a Hindu Indian.

A member of a non white, non Abrahamic, Dharmic civilisation that has made immeasurably rich contributions to guide and inspire humanity.

However, it has also suffered immensely from mercenary and racist invasions, enslavement, loot and pillaging for which both Islam and Christianity have provided religious cover.

Noteworthy, that these actions of unspeakable insanity were rationalised by the vandals as civilising missions.

Even as they looted and attempted to destroy a magnificent civilisation, they presented themselves as saviours.

Indians were in the words of a popular writer of his time, "The White Man's Burden".

As a survivor of successive holocausts of invasion and colonialism, I have a solemn moral obligation, to my wise and heroic ancestors and to our beloved children, to ensure that such horrors would never engulf humanity again.

Alas, the powerful Roman Catholic Church with its immense illegitimate wealth, its multi national organisation and its mesmerising religious cachet appears to suffer no such scruples.

Motivated by a shockingly myopic, parochial and divisive political intent and displaying a most disturbing madness, it seeks to abuse its immense power by brushing aside and trampling over the dignity and humanity of those valiant and vital few who have survived its depredations.

What an obscene picture !

This corrupt and ugly behemoth that has in one stroke revived memories of some of the most vicious cruelties of White Christian Supremacist savagery.

The Vatican cannot by any enlightened standard of ethics and morality be allowed to prevail.

All conscientious citizens must consider this savage obduracy of this putatively religious organisation as a personal affront to their dignity and to the safety, sanity and fearless, loving essence of their children.

They must do everything in their power to stop this brutality in its tracks and show Vatican a way out of its noisome mental cloisters.

Junipero Serra belongs in a dark and forgettable dustbin of history. And there he must be allowed to lie.

He has little to offer the future.

The following is an invitation to you to sign the petition.

Hi, 

As Native Californians, descendants of Mission Indians, we ask Pope Francis to abandon his plan to declare Junipero Serra a Saint. Pope Francis has indicated that he "Values Human Life" yet our people were suppressed, dominated and enslaved by Serra and considered collateral damage to the Church. This plan will not celebrate Hispanics (since Serra and his Soldiers were foreign invaders), welcome Native Peoples back to the Catholic Church, or honor our ancestors. It will re-awaken the post Inquisition, Doctrine of Discovery; a very dark, and brutal time in the history of the Catholic Church and Civilization. 

The passage of time has not made the reality of dominations and genocide of Indigenous Californians go away, nor has it made the Mastermind of the brutal Mission system a Saint. We respectfully ask you to urge the Pope to vacate this plan and open a meaningful dialogue with California Nations. We do not want an apology, rather, we need tangible policies from the Church to abandon the Papal Bulls the Doctrine of Discovery and to recognize the inhumane treatment of our ancestors. Abandoning the canonization of Junipero Serra is the first step. 

That's why I signed a petition to His Holiness, Pope Francis, which says:

"Pope Francis is coming to Washington, D.C., to canonize Junipero Serra as a Saint. It is imperative he is enlightened to understand that Father Serra was responsible for the deception, exploitation, oppression, enslavement and genocide of thousands of Indigenous Californians, ultimately resulting in the largest ethnic cleansing in North America. 

The reality of the California Mission system has yet to be accurately taught in California schools or recognized by the Catholic Church. Elementary school children tour mission grounds and are taught that native people were "docile and child-like savage pagans, saved by the kind and benevolent padres". In reality, the human remains of thousands of indigenous people are scattered beneath the grounds of the Missions that were built by Indian slaves as garrisons for the church and Spanish crown. Indigenous people died of rape, beatings and diseases introduced by the Spanish conquistadors in California. Spanish Priests did little to recognize indigenous people as humans and did not come to their rescue when women were raped by soldiers and settlers. With an over 90% indigenous mortality rate, Serra hardly "saved many souls". 

" 

Will you sign the petition too? Click here to add your name: 

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/urge-pope-francis-to?source=s.fwd&r_by=13040488 

Thanks!