Trouble started after Padma Shree awardee and Sahitya Academy award-winning writer Daya Prakash Sinha compared Ashoka with Aurangzeb, suggesting that both were cruel rulers and committed lots of sins in their initial days. What has irked the JD-U is that Sinha describes himself as the national convener for BJP (Cultural Cell).
India today is in the midst of a fresh pincer movement, outflanked by two powers: from the west approaches the bullying United States of America. From the north-east has penetrated the Communist Party of China-ruled government of Beijing. And there is little to show that the India of 1.3 billion heads is geared to withstand pulls and pressures originating from either the Hans or Yanks in the long run.
History has recorded how Ashoka (304 BC-232 BC), arguably the greatest of India’s emperors, thrice offered the country to the…
