Senior RSS thinker Dr SRIPATI SHASTRI and SRI NANAJI DESHMUKH are no more

Posted: 27 Feb 2010 06:38 AM PST

Namaste,

We are sad to inform you that two veteran RSS leaders  Dr. SRIPATI SHASTRI of PUNE and Sri NANAJI DESHMUKH of  CHITRAKOOT passed away today.

Dr. SRIPATI SHASTRI was basically from HARIHARA of CHITRADURGA district in Karnataka. A gold medalist from Mysore University in history. He did his Ph. D thesis on "history of constitution of the world". Then he joined department of history at Pune University and worked as professor of history for two decades.
He was an active member of RSS from his student days. Dr. Shastry was a well known intellectual, speaker and thinker. He was a member of national executive committee. his lectures on "Partition of Bharat" and "1857 freedom movement" were highly inspiring. He visited several western countries and participated in many RSS functions. Unmarried, he dedicated much of his life for the cause of society. His famous book on "RSS on Christian activities" was a noted work.He was respected by all spectrum of the society irrespective of political and religious groups. His nature was acceptable to everyone and was a great teacher of history for thousands.RSS pays tributes to the great soul.

Ulhas Latkar (Publisher, Ameya Prakashan, Pune) Manohar Joshi, Ravindra Dani (Translator), Narendra Modi, Gopinath Munde, Dr. Sripati Shastri (extreme right)

Sri. Nanaji Deshmukh 

Sri. Nanaji Deshmukh known for his work on rural development of villages in Madhyapradesh. His work based at Chitrakoot was model in the rural development field and regarded as "a complete laboratory of rural development". He was the founder of 'Deendayal Research institute' at Arogyadham parisar of Chitrakoot, Satna District, Madhyapradesh.

Chitrakoot Project is an integrated and holistic model for the development of rural India, based on the principles outlines in Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya's Integral Humanism to create a society based on the complimentarity of the family, primary school and the local population. The Chitrakoot Project is a self-reliance campaign that was launched on 26th January 2002 and will cover 500 villages around Chitrakoot in 2 phases. The 80 villages taken up in the 1st phase will be self-reliant by 15th August 2005, and the remaining villages will achieve self-reliance by 26th January 2009. The Campaign has also been started in the villages covered by the Institute in Gonda and Beed districts. The self-reliance campaign covers all aspects of individual, family and societal life of the villagers. The key to the campaign is the concept of Samaj Shilpi Dampati (SSD), 'graduate' couples that lives within the villages itself, and are responsible for motivating and guiding a cluster of 5 villages.

Dr. Abdul Kalam on Nanaji Deshmukh and his works : 
"I recently visited Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh, where I met Shri Nanaji Deshmukh, 90+ and his team belonging to the Deendayal Research Institute (DRI). The DRI is a unique institution developing and implementing a village development system, which is most suited for India. As a part of integrated rural development, villagers are engaged in water harvesting; effectively using it for cultivation of food grains, medicinal and aromatic and horticulture cultivation. They are transforming herbs into herbal products and marketing them. Apart from all these development activities, the institute is facilitating a cohesive conflict free society. As a result of this, eighty villages around Chitrakoot are almost litigation free. Villagers have unanimously decided that no dispute will find its way to court. Differences will be sorted out amicably in the village itself. The reason given by Nana Deshmukhji is that if the people fight among each other they will have no time for development. This is also true in the life of a nation in every political system. The work of the DRI has enabled the generation of employment for a large number of farmers in the Chitrakoot region. During my visit, I went to a small village called Patni where the villagers talked to me about the progress of their village and their problems. Many women said they have to send their children long distances for studying beyond the 10th Class. They requested up-gradation of the school to the plus 2 level. They also felt the need for a road which would connect multiple villages. The then Chief Minister readily agreed and announced in the meeting itself, that school upgradation and the provision of roads would be implemented immediately. I am sure that would add to the happiness of many village farmers. The DRI understands that people's power is very potent. Social advancement and prosperity are possible only by injecting the spirit of self-reliance and excellence in the younger generation. Using this principle the DRI has plans to develop a hundred clusters of villages having approximately five villages each around Chitrakoot, based on the experience of 80 villages in 16 clusters. All these have been accomplished through the DRIs "samajshilpi dampati" a new concept of counseling and intervention promoted by the DRI as a well conceived societal mission. 
I would like to share a few thoughts with the Honorable Members of this Legislative Assembly on the topic "Missions for Madhya Pradesh's Prosperity" with reference to the core competence of Madhya Pradesh and national vision."
Visit www.chitrakoot.org and www.driindia.org
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Nanaji Deshmukh: a social entrepreneur par excellence

Nanaji Deshmukh: a social entrepreneur par excellence

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 07:20 PM PST

• A leader, who at the height of his political career, retired from politics and moved to a remote village, dedicating himself to the vision of a strong India through self reliant villages.
• A social activist, who patiently worked and reformed hundreds of villages in the economically backward regions of Central India and rescued lakhs of people from utter poverty.
• An economist, who gave to the world, an egalitarian and self sustaining economic alternative, based on Gandhian economics, when the world was polarized between exploitative Capitalism and dogmatic Communism.

• An educationist who started the first Rural University in India.

• A social entrepreneur, who pioneered the concept of conflict free society through "Litigation free villages", and made the villagers partners in their development.  

• A political activist, who crafted one of the largest pro-democracy movements in Independent India which led to the restoration of democrasy in India after a two year dictatorship.

These points can hardly summarize, even infinitesimally, the life and the work of Shri Nanaji Deshmukh. He passed away yesterday, at 94, after living a long and an inspiring life of a social entrepreneur. Here is a brief on the legendary social worker and the swayamsevak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Early Life and Influences
Nanaji became a swayamsevak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, at an early age. His first important influence that would shape his life as a social activist came from Dr Hedgewar, the founder of RSS, who had close contacts with Nanaji's family and who used to visit them often.
The inspiration he got from the RSS founder and other Sangh leaders would turn his association with RSS into a lifelong one. He became a pracharak (full time worker) of the RSS after his education and was sent to Uttar Pradesh for expanding Sangh work. The young Nanaji, like other pracharaks lived an austere life while facing all kinds of hardships. But the Sangh work steadily grew under his leadership. When Bharatiya Jana Sangh was formed in 1953, he along with a few other pracharaks was sent into it. His initial years in the organizations, where he extensively travelled through the economically backward regions of Uttar Pradesh, helped shape his understanding of the problems of rural India.
Guruji Golwalkar, the second Sarasanghachalak of the RSS, sent a team of volunteers led by Nanaji to help Acharya Vinoba Bhave in the Bhoodan movement - a voluntary land reform movement based on Gadhian principles. This was probably Nanaji's first direct contact with Gandhian thought. The other most important influence of his life would come from another RSS pracharak and his colleague in Bharatiya Jana Sangh - the visionary leader Deendayal Upadhyaya. Nanaji has claimed that the inspiration to his vision and the model of "Self reliant villages" came from 'Integral humanism' of Deendayal as much as it did from the Gandhian thought.
In Pro-Democracy Movements
As a political leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, his focus was on the organisation, which grew into a formidable one, especially in Uttar Pradesh which had become his new home. He also made great allies and friends in leaders across the political spectrum, including Gandhian and Socialist leaders. His association with Gandhian leader, Jayaprakash Narayan and other leaders of Opposition would help form a formidable alliance against the Emergency imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. A strong network of pro-democracy activists mostly drawn from the RSS cadres was formed, which worked underground to create public opinion and to unite all opposition leaders. The Economist of London called it "only non-left revolutionary force" dedicated to the restoration of democracy in India. The movement grew in strength and popularity and on a strong Pro-democracy wave, the opposition for the first time defeated the invincible Indira Gandhi and came to power. But Nanaji, who had played a pivotal role in bringing the alliance to power, refused to be part of the Government. He decided to retire from politics and dedicate himself completely to the upliftment of rural India.
The Chitrakoot project

Please watch the video documentary on Chitrakoot project here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azkl6NgaZKs).

In 1977, he moved to Chitrakoot, a remote village in Madhya Pradesh with a mission to create a prototype of self sustaining model of development based on the concept of 'Gram Swaraj'. When the Indian political discourse had been deafened by rhetoric of the Capitalistic free market policies and of urban centric development on one side and the State controlled Socialism on the other, Nanaji's model provided a refreshing alternative. For the first time, there was a model which depended on the civil society than on the Government for development. "Do not wait for the Government to solve your problems" Nanaji used to tell people "we have to find solutions to our problems".
Many of the hundreds of villages that have come under what is now popularly known as "Chitrakoot project", generate their own electricity through the Bio-energy and solar energy plants. The villages which always faced water shortage today have a variety of rain harvesting and water conservation methods. Organic farming is not just for experimentation but a way of life and Chemical fertilizers are no more an inevitability. Women entrepreneurs today, help run many small scale industries which produce quality goods. All of this with very little support from the Government. For all those who thought Gandhian and Indian economic models were too idealistic and unrealistic, here was an answer. Here was an example of holistic development; of the fruits of development reaching the last man. Litigation free model
One more of Nanaji's vision was to form a conflict-free society. He had found to his dismay that lot of energies of the rural people were wasted in litigations, which left them both impoverished and exploited. He had said "If people fight amongst each other, they will have no time for development". He pioneered a method of sorting conflicts and differences between the villagers called the Litigation Free Model, which was based on the ancient Indian principles of consensus making and alternate conflict resolution.
When the President of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam visited Chitrakoot, he was amazed by this. He congratulated Nanaji for giving to the nation the litigation-free model of resolving disputes he had devised. Dr Kalam said "In Chitrakoot, I met Nanaji Deshmukh and his team members belonging to the Deendayal Research Institute (DRI). DRI is a unique institution developing and implementing a village development model which is most suited for India,” "Apart from all the development activities, the institute is facilitating a cohesive conflict-free society.”The villagers have unanimously decided that no dispute will find its way to the courts. The differences will be sorted out amicably in the village itself. The reason given by Nanaji Deshmukh is that if the people fight among each other, they have no time for development,” "I consider that this model may be propagated in many parts of the country by societal organisations, judicial organisations and government," Kalam had opined.
Praising Nanaji Deshmukh for his single-minded devotion to the uplift of the people, Kalam said “What the octogenarian leader was doing at Chitrakoot should be an eye-opener for others.”
Recognition
Today, in the milan when I summed up all these points, a swayamsevak drawing a parallel between Nanaji's work and works of other social entrepreneurs like Mohammad Yusuf of Bangladesh Grameen Bank exclaimed "Should such a great man not have got a Noble peace prize too?". Well "yes" I said, Nanaji like other real social workers never got the due recognition, not just because such recognitions are predominantly reserved for the powerful and the influential but also because such social workers have never put themselves in queues for such prizes. Their focus has always been their work.
The tribute to his life is not in prizes but in the smiles of the poorest people of India for whom he worked all his life, in building a strong and a self reliant India.

From (http://aswayamsevaksmusings.blogspot.com/2010/02/leader-who-at-height-of-his-political.html) with the permission of the author. Write your comments to paramavaibhavam@gmail.com

Amnesty international brings human rights a bad name

Amnesty international brings human rights a bad name

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 04:24 AM PST

Gita Sahgal, head of the gender unit at Amnesty’s international secretariat, based out of Britan has publicly criticised Amnesty International for allying with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. She, in an email sent to her bosses in Amensty had  criticised the organisation and said it “fundamentally damages” the organisation’s reputation. Instead of taking heed to her concerns, she was promptly suspended and the organisation chose to continue with its links with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
In a email that is now public, Sahgal, a human rights activist for several years now, charged the Amnesty International of putting the human rights of Al-Qaeda terror suspects above those of their victims. Amnesty had sided with Moazzam Begg, a former British inmate at Guantanamo Bay, and the most vocal supporter of Taliban in Britan. In an email sent to Amnesty’s top bosses, she suggests the group has mistakenly allied itself with Begg and his “jihadi” group, Cageprisoners, out of fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic.
Beg is known to have championed the rights of jailed Al-Qaeda members and hate preachers, including Anwar al-Awlaki, the alleged spiritual mentor of the Christmas Day Detroit plane bomber. He has also been supported and funded by the Amnesty International in his tour around Europe urging countries to offer safe haven to Guantanamo detainees. This is despite concerns about former inmates returning to terrorism.
Sahgal, who has researched religious fundamentalism for 20 years, has decided to go public because she feels Amnesty has ignored her warnings for the past two years about the involvement of Begg in the charity’s Counter Terror With Justice campaign.
“I believe the campaign fundamentally damages Amnesty International’s integrity and, more importantly, constitutes a threat to human rights,” Sahgal wrote in an email to the organisation’s leaders on January 30. “To be appearing on platforms with Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban, whom we treat as a human rights defender, is a gross error of judgment.”
Beg has been championing the cause of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Abu Hamza, the hook-handed cleric facing extradition from Britain to America on terror charges, and Abu Qatada, a preacher described as Osama Bin Laden’s “European ambassador”.
A Times UK report said Sahgal, 53, is not the only one who has pointed the misgivings of Amnesty in the name of supporting human rights. In 2008 a board member of its US arm opposed Begg’s appearance, via videolink, at its AGM, but was overruled.
Yesterday Begg dismissed Sahgal’s claims as “ridiculous”. He defended his support for the Taliban and the decision by Cageprisoners to highlight the plight of detainees linked to Al-Qaeda.
Meanwhile, senior journalist and political commentator in India, Swapan Das Gupta, has said that this controversy could be instructive for India too. He,in an artilce published in the Times of India said "To me, this incident involves more than the misjudgment of one reputable human rights body. It is a classic case study of the derailment of the human rights industry — yes, it is an industry — and its takeover by politically-driven activists".

Concluding programme of 'Manparivartan Shibir'

Concluding programme of 'Manparivartan Shibir'

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 09:40 AM PST

In an emotion filled function 10 runaway children were handed over to their parents by "Samatol Foundation", an organisation working with street children.  

A handicapped father had rushed from Delhi to meet his 12 years old son Manoj, who was missing for last 3 months. He could not speak as his throat was choked. He & other parents thanked Samatol Foundation for finding their child & taking pains  to contact them for handing over their child.

Concluding programme of 'Manparivartan Shibir' was organised on 7th March 2010 at Samarth Vyayam Mandir Hall, Dadar (W). Out of 28 children attended 'Manparivartan Shibir'. 10 children were handed over to their parents. It was very emotional reunion of child & its parents. Remaining children will be taken to their homes by Samatol's outreach workers. 

Shri. Sharath Bansal (Executive Director, PwC), Mrs. Prabhune (DGM, Saraswat Bank), Shri. Anna Wani (Hindu Seva Sangh) were present on dais. Mrs. Shubhada Chaukar (Sr. Editor, Loksatta) narrated her experience regarding run away children & appealed everyone to support the great cause. 

Mr. Vijay Jadhav and Mr. Mahesh Rasam introduced their team of activists. Concluding program of children ended with cultural program of children of Manparivartan Shibir. 

Contact and provide "Samatol" your helping hands for future projects.

1/4 , Ahamad umar building, Dr. Disilva Road, Above Darbar Hotel, 

Dadar (West), Mumbai-400028

contact no:- 022-24374316

Email Id:- samatolfoundation@yahoo.com