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YOUR VOICE
Passing away of Nelson Mandela is sad, but also reminder that when divine wants to help humanity, it creates strong persons. Nelson Mandela undertook gargantuan effort to fight monster of apartheid. He did not buckle under 27 years’ incarceration, physical and psychological torture meant to break him. He forced the demonic regime to release him on his own terms. Yet he displayed surprising generosity and forgave his tormentors. Later, Nelson Mandela preached equality and elimination of racism and poverty. Though humanity is crying at his departure, his soul will be laughing due to impact it had on global fight against inhuman torture. Such souls will depart physically, but will not be forgotten for centuries. Very few people are fortune to coexist with super-humans like Nelson Mandela. He spanned most of twentieth century and early twenty-first century. He fell into rank of veterans like Gandhiji, Sardar Patel, Martin Luther King, Princess Diana etc. These divinity backed mega persons left their impact on the world without firing a single bullet or without shedding a single drop of blood. These persons will stand out like spires from fog riddled valley of mundane humanity. This recurrence of super-humans is according to Bahgvan Krishna’s promise to reincarnate on earth to repair damage to society and to punish sinners. By sheer coincidence, Mandela passed away when biopic on his life was being premiered in London; similar to coincidence during assassination of J. F. Kennedy, when a film, about death of president, was being filmed in Congo.
A tribute to Nelson Mandela
www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 14th December2013
Nelson Mandela, who was born on 18 July 1918, is no more. He passed away on 5 December 2013 at a ripe old age of 95. He was a South African anti apartheid revolutionary, politician and philanthropist who served as the President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the first black South African to hold the office, and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalised racism, poverty and inequality, and fostering racial reconciliation. Having visited South Africa on a recent holiday, we know what a beautiful country he has left behind. Like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King before him, Nelson Mandela strove for his country’s freedom, not by violent means, but by taking a leaf out of Gandhiji’s book and following the path of non-violence and love towards all human beings, friends or foe. It must be remembered that Gandhiji’s spiritual mentor was Srimad Rajchandraji, a Jain muni. The Mahatma, though not a Jain himself, was deeply influenced by Jain doctrines, particularly that of ahimsa or nonviloence. After he was freed in 1990 Mandela had said "As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison” What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves. Dinesh Sheth Newbury Park, Ilford
Ramesh Jhalla Via Email
Indian election
The recent state election in India has shown that the corrupt UPA under Sonia’s leadership is becoming spent force in politics due to corruption, nepotism and the rule by one family. In spite of abuses heaped on the BJP by the Congress party especially on Raman Singh, the BJP won with a good majority in Chhattisgarh and Raman Singh was blamed for killing of Congress leaders by Maoist. Rahul Gandhi spent three months in Chhattisgarh and his magic did not work. He is politically ‘naive,’ and has become redundant. The BJP has built up a good organisation under Modi leadership in spite of opposition from old guards in the party. The BJP has good regional leaders in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and they lost few seats in Delhi because of internal fight and the selection of the leader. Aam Admi party is a new phenomenon and most of the votes are protest votes since to a large extent people are fed up with both the parties. The UK
independent party got more than 15 per cent of the votes and most of them against the present Conservative- Lib Dem coalition government. The Congress party is ruled by mother and son. When the party lost the state elections, the Prime minster failed to address the press and Manmohan Singh has been side-lined from attending Nelson Mandala’s funeral. Sonia Gandhi and the Congress party has no policy apart from appeasing minorities. The young Indian voters do not want communal politics and want development and jobs. The time has come to put an end to one family Roman empire. Arun Vaidyanathan Via Email
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ASIAN VOICE
We witnessed two opposing ideologies in the twentieth century: nationalism and internationalism. The founding fathers of the European Union believed in internationalism and over 65 years have developed a strong supra-national semi-political semi-economic unit. UK on the other hand has remained more nationalistic and isolationist. India split up from one nation to three nations. South Africans moved from being dependent to independent and now to interdependent. What I found most hypocritical is that while Western countries boasted about their belief in liberty, equality and freedom over the entire century, they accepted the laws of Apartheid in one of their colonies up to and as recent as 1994. Yes 1994. “The South African Nationalist Party won the South African General Election in 1948. Voting excluded 80% of the population, and this continued until 1994. They won on a blatant racist card—they promised to keep ‘the Natives’, black persons, in their place. And they meant it” (Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Tribute from D. T. in “Mandela”: a book by Peter Hain, senior Labour politician). These Western nations are pouring in verbal praise of the highest degree. But the same people are also violating international law in other countries. Just study around the mess in which Libya, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan, the three Congo countries, and many other countries are. Deeds are stronger than words. Only if Mandela’s death changes the Western nations’ foreign policy of frequent military interventions more for their own national interests will his legacy have a lasting influence. Just visit any public toilet at airport,
Role of the Indian diaspora
I fully endorse the views of Alpesh Patel’s in Asian Voice of 7th December. The Indian diaspora has and can play a very useful role in expanding trade and investment between India and our nation. Of course many of us now regard the UK as our nation and that is the right thing. Alpesh Patel’s role as adviser in this area is exemplary. We must not forget that the Indian diaspora extends to Africa and other parts of the World. Africa will be the new India. 10 out of top fastest growing economies of the World are African and World’s youngest population live in Africa. More work needs to be done to cultivate the diaspora links for trade and investment. Let us hope that Priti Patel succeeds in this important role. It’s a good start for the PM to recognise the need.
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museum, five star hotel, etc, in any Western advanced country, you will see a black person cleaning it. Nagindas Khajuria Via Email
Triumph for BJP and Modi While BJP has attained landslide victories in MP, Rajasthan, Chhatisgadh and ousted Congress in Delhi, this is also a personal triumph for Modi whose character has been ceaselessly attacked by the Congress and the media controlled by the West. This success should also laid to rest the belief, the propaganda that Modi does not command respect, support outside Gujarat. In fact Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raja credited Modi for the stunning victory, pointing out that of 20 constituencies he addressed, BJP won 16 while every constituency Rahul Gandhi addressed, lost. Let us hope that Congress will not stop projecting Rahul as their PM candidate, as he is no match to Modi and is a winning card in BJP armoury. Bhupendra M Gandhi Via Email
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It is hard to believe that apartheid, which today seems so unimaginable and barbaric was still in existence less than 20 years ago. Thousands of South African Indians were also subject to apartheid and were commonly referred to as “coolies”; who when apartheid was at its worst could not vote, work in mines, walk along particular sidewalks, take certain buses or live where they wanted to. I remember speaking to my grandmother who originated from Durban (one of the largest Indian cities outside India in the early twentieth century) about her experiences of apartheid and I remember being so surprised to hear just how ingrained this kind of discrimination was in society at the time. Many Indians at the time who were born into apartheid considered the discrimination to be “a part of life” and “normal” genuinely feeling inferior to others. No one should ever be made to feel like that. The world owes a great debt to Nelson Mandela for ridding the world of this evil. Mandela’s greatest legacy was that he did not just represent black South Africans, but all people of South Africa. He left jail with no bitterness and forgave his persecutors, in an attempt to champion a free, democratic and equal South Africa for all. As a society we must carry forward Mandela’s legacy to ensure that we eradicate racial discrimination wherever it is still prevalent and that apartheid never happens again. Ameet Jogia Via Email
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