The Patriots’ Forum: Its Origin and Activities (October, 2013)

• Registered as a Charitable Trust in March, 2006, the Patriots’ Forum is a “THINK TANK”, with practical bias. It consists mainly of senior retired government servants, academics, social scientists and friends from other different fields, including journalists. The motto is: to uphold and protect the age-old Indic civilisation. Among our priorities is to create awareness of the consequences of fast-changing demographic composition of the country with serious adverse impact on our civilisational ethos.

Although we have a long way to go, the Forum has courageously stood up to be counted by those concerned. Among some of our major activities have been:

• Filed a PIL in Delhi High Court in January, 2008, challenging the setting up of Sachar Committee as a religion specific body in gross violation of the Right to Equality enshrined in Article 15A of the Constitution of India. It has been admitted and is pending for arguments for years. We are breaking our heads how to get over this logjam. Any help in this regard is welcome.
• It is worth pointing out here that even before filing the PIL, we had been fighting with the Sachar Committee to give us a hearing, as called for publicly, but with no success.
• Had sent a Memorandum, compiling the details of the PIL, mentioned above, to all 740 plus honourable Members of Parliament, sadly with only a few responses, mainly in the form of acknowledgement.
• Lodged protest against the most unbecoming conduct of the then Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, leading a street march in defence of extending legal protection to anti-nationalist students of the Institute involved in acts of terrorism.
• Presented a Memorandum to the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister and others concerned, offering concrete suggestions after 26/11 Mumbai Massacre.
• Sent an open letter to the US President over his ignoring India’s important role in promoting global peace, in his so-called historic speech on June 4, 2009, at Al Azhar University, Cairo.
• Have undertaken a programme to send to all district headquarter towns in States and Union Territories a fact-based (without interpretation) leaflet on socio-political implications of fast changing demographic composition of India, as revealed in the 2001 Census Report of the Government of India. It was translated in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Telegu and was widely distributed. The task of getting in translated in other, rather all, regional languages, is still on, waiting for resources. We consider this to be a very important and yet unfinished task. A copy of this leaflet, both in Hindi and English, is attached. This will help create the right kind of awareness of the impending threat of what has been described as ‘demographic disaster”.
• Have so far organised two very significant Seminars in 2010 and 2012 on demography-related issues. A book published on these Seminars is herewith.
• Holding periodic meetings on the ground in different areas of Delhi and outside Delhi also at times, to create necessary awareness on demographic issues threatening the Indian Civilisation.
• Have been bringing out a quarterly magazine, both in print and on internet, by the name “BHARAT SPEAKS”, a copy of which is attached herewith. It has received high recognition, even internationally. Extreme financial crisis is about to force us to stop printing hard copies of this much appreciated journal.
• Have set up a reformatted dynamic Portal, replacing the old website, of course, with the same address. It was necessitated because of the demand of the changing times of technology.
• Introduced (with effect from July 12, 2013), a Weekly Newsletter, in bullet-point format, with proclaimed bias towards Forum’s ideology. Has been very well-received.
• Have been working as the dissemination centre for sharing with members and friends write-ups, received from different channels, including extracting articles from national English dailies.
• Have been surviving on periodic donations from the members & friends, but with increasing field of activities and especially, with the recently reformatted dynamic Portal, so necessary in these days of internet activities, the annual budget of the Forum has gone up beyond our means.