'Tomorrow the same ladies may show up with a
movie that glorifies incest!'
How Readers reacted to Varsha Bhosle's recent columns
Date sent: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 09:18:53 -0800 (PST)
From: An Observer <peace1040@yahoo.com>
Subject: Varsha Bhosle on the Fire debate
Varsha's column starts out as a reasonable defence of gay rights but then degenerates into her usual rambling. Her problem is that she tries to do too many things in one column: comment on issues of gay rights, respond to her critics on a variety of unrelated issues, and cater to her fans with her usual menu of recycled minority bashing/baiting. The last item is clear from Rediff's archives of her articles. The result is a column weak on logic.
In responding to her critics, the best she can do is avoid answers, and
use terms like "dingbats", which I guess is her patented style. She reminds one of the Laloo-Mulayam style, a rarity among columnists, which reinforces her popularity among her admirers.
Regarding research, there is no need for Bhosle to provide sources
or statistics on gays, as an abundance of material is available on the subject. But she cannot use this to conveniently dismiss the matter of providing sources in support of her (wild) conjecture in an earlier column of "overextending of concessions" to minorities. We still need a data-based analysis of the monetary values of concessions exclusively given to different communities.
Her compulsion of giving a communal twist to almost any issue is evident. She assails Dilip Kumar, Javed Akhtar, and Mahesh Bhatt, for speaking out on this matter. Her logic: they did not speak out against Muslim vandals earlier on the issue of the movie Bombay.
That's a strange equation. According to Rediff's coverage, the trio spoke out after the chief minister and other members of the Maharashtra government justified the violence. It is not just a matter of vandals from one of the communities taking law into their hands. In this case, those who are responsible for law enforcement endorsed the breaking of law.
Then, why does Bhosle give a communal colour to the matter of gay rights? There are a lot of mullah bigots who share the Shiv Sena's sentiments on gays. Here the two make strange
bedfellows. By a forced injection of a communal divide into this debate, Bhosle makes it clear that she is not serious in her defence of gay rights, but is using the issue to push her usual agenda of minority baiting.
A Malik
USA
Date sent: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 12:43:18 -0500
From: "Ravi Aron" <RaviAron@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Bhosle on Tempural Affairs
Bravo! I can well understand Bhosle's POV. After two unhappy attempts at eating
raw Jap fauna, I gave up. I'll have another helping of Kurosawa and Haiku
but no Sushi please. On another note, might I add 'tis a far better thing
you do now and than what you have done before?
Ravi Aron
NY 10012
Date sent: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 23:39:56 -0700
From: mohit bhargava <mohit@rmi.net>
Subject: Varsha Bhosle's column
Anything relevant that Varsha said in this article could have been said in 10 lines! Such a waste of space.
Mohit
Date sent: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 15:07:02 +0530
From: Vinay N Das <vndas@bflsl.soft.net>
Subject: A 'Haiku' (?) on Varsha Bhosle
Bash away, O Varsha,
Bash away, bash away,
Be it Muslims, Japan or the chaddi morcha,
You are at your best this way !!
Vinay
Date sent: Sat, 12 Dec 1998 12:30:06 +0530
From: Arvind Kumar <arvind.kumar@rocketmail.com>
Subject: Varsha Bhosle on Fire
You assume that the opposition is because the manhood of those opposing the movie is fragile!
This is ridiculous. You know very well that the
opposition is from fundamentalists who have donned the role of moral police. Why do you pretend otherwise?
Arvind
Date sent: Thu, 03 Dec 1998 14:06:26 +0530
From: Sarita Karnik <skarnik@bom5.vsnl.net.in>
Subject: Varsha's column on Fire
Don't know what to say about the column. Half of it was quotes. The
style just irritates you and the contents get lost in this. One keeps
wondering what is it that she wants to write. Is she for or against the
ban? You think she is against it, but the twist in the end leaves you
baffled.
One correction: the film Bombay was not taken away because of Muslim
protests, but because of the self-proclaimed "almighty" Bal Thackeray. Maybe she should learn her facts better. Any protest against the action of Shiv Sainiks needs to be lauded. What
she has done is given it a communal angle which is totally unnecessary,
and diffuses the issue. Wish she would be more focussed. Nevertheless, her article needs to be widely circulated. We need more liberal people to come out in the open and successfully fight the onslaught of these narrow-minded rightist nitwits.
Sarita Karnik
Bombay
Date sent: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 12:46:58 -0500
From: Subash Pereira <Subash_Pereira@gmo.com>
Subject: Varsha Bhosle's article on Fire
Just when you she has her moments of rationality and sanity, she goes on to spoil it regressing back to her pro-Hindutva and anti-everything else vitriol. Surely she recognises that the very people who she calls stupid are the backbone of her aggressive Hindu philosophy? This woman is so blinded by her views that she even turns the Bombay episode into an example of secular partiality towards Muslims.
I agree that the secular parties are hypocrites as they exploit the minority insecurity for their votes. But this example is all hogwash. It was Bal Thackeray who said that Bombay would not be allowed to be screened as it portrayed him in poor light. Mani Ratnam had to go begging to him and agree to changes to release his movie. It is a sign that the country has reached its nadir when people like Thackeray in order to do anything.
Varsha who accuses secularists of being hypocrites (which they are), is a bigger hypocrite herself, when she supports her heroes of communal politics. Any intelligent person with a sense of history will realise that communal and racist policies are always accompanied by goondaism and anarchy. I really wonder why you persist in printing her column. Apart from spewing poison, they do not have any journalistic merit.
Subash
Date sent: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 12:49:55 -0600
From: vu2ash <vu2ash@altavista.net>
Subject: Varsha
I always read what readers have said about every article that is
published onRediff. Just looking at the name of the sender, I can
predict (and it's almost 100% correct) what their response is gonna be.
Like if the sender is named like Varghese etc, he/she will
enthusiastically support articles from D'Souza etc and oppose articles
from Varsha, T V R Shenoy and Srinivasan. Also, Muslim readers spew
venom at articles of Varsha et al. So, it means that the readers do not
give a damn as to what the writer is saying but to who s/he is. What's true of Rediff columns is in general true of the political landscape in India. And that's India's misfortune.
Anyway, coming back to Varsha's column on Fire, I think the Shiv Sena's culture police and the agitation against some controversial events are a manifestation of the Islamisation of a Hindu society. In the land of the Kamasutra, it's impossible to imagine, for example, Rajput women observing purdah, sati, johar etc. I think this intolerance in our society is a direct result of Islamic oppression.
In those tumultuous days it was so much better to burn a widow, keep a woman in purdah, than subject her to rape at the hands of invaders and the resultant unwanted, uncared for progeny. I'm not supporting any of
these acts. Just trying to explain their genesis.
As so many temples all over India (with famous ones like the Khajuraho) testify, Hinduism was (and in large part still is) a very tolerant religion. Nothing, that was accepted by a society at large, was taboo. All that changed with the advent of a Semitic, close-minded religion like Islam. Gargi, Maitreyi etc are some of the names of learned women that peep through the pages of ancient Indian history. I remember a verse my grandfather used to recite. That verse talks of Ahilya, Janaki (Sita), Tara and Mandodari (Ravan's wife) as women renowned for their intellect.
As regards the hawkish stand taken by film personalities, less said the better. It's not because of the issues, but because who they can embarrass by raising those.
Date sent: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 00:39:28 +0530
From: Jayanath_Jayanthan <JAYANATH_JAYANTHAN@hht.satyam.com>
Subject: Varsha's article on Fire
You must be aware of the fact that lesbianism being unnatural is a punishable offence under the IPC. In that case what you are doing is supporting a crime which is no less severe than what the Sena chief did (he also supported a punishable offence i e, the attack on cinemas).
What is really irritating in your piece is the male-female angle given to the episode. It is a cultural offence, and it must be stopped somehow. Otherwise tomorrow the same ladies will show up with a movie that glorifies incest and you will be there to support it, as there are several ways to support incest if a feminist so wishes.
Jayan
Date sent: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 16:44:32 -0800 (PST)
From: Garg Family <garg_art@yahoo.com>
Subject: Bravo Varsha
I am delighted that in the land of Durga and Kaali there are a few women who are willing to stand up and unwilling to take bullshit from the "self-proclaimed" protectors of society -- Sudha Churi, Pramod Navalkar, Sandeep Kherdekar and Manohar Joshi.
Twenty-five years ago when I went to an engineering college at Banaras and stayed in hostels, I came to know that homosexuality did exist and
not only among men. And it existed in all religion followings.
While I am not an advocate of homosexuality, I am astonished at these people standing up and proclaiming themselves as moral keepers of the nation. I find it funny. No one has ever voted them to that position. Where are they when women are subjected to torture by in-laws? I can
almost guarantee that each of their extended families have elements of that in existence. And, blindly they will ignore it. Where are they when a foetus is subjected to a sudden
death?
If they care so much about "our own daughters, wives and sisters" and
*want to protect* them, why can't they learn from Gandhiji and do a
fast-to-death till this ends, just like he did against the Hindu-Muslim
riots in 1947? Till such time, may we request them to shut up? When will all of us (the general population of India) see them in their true colours?
Anil Garg
Date sent: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 14:43:31 +0530
From: mrinka <mrinka@bom4.vsnl.net.in>
Subject: Varsha Bhosle's column on Fire
Varsha breathes fire. Keep it up. However I do not agree with her statement that society teaches ''woman is an addendum to men''. The basic problem starts with the woman who forgets all she has suffered when she becomes a mother and starts favouring her son over her daughter. All mothers should first stop discriminating against their daughters. Charity begins at home. The society will change. No one will have the courage to look down upon a woman if they know she has people to back them. What do you expect a poor girl to do but suffer humiliation from others when her own parents favour her brother?
Date sent: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 18:35:59 GMT
From: "yasin kazi" <yasink@hotmail.com>
Subject: Present Imperfect
I strongly believe that liberty always leads to success. If we change our thought-process we still can change things. But the statement from Varsha that 'If there were no Congress-sponsored extraneous concessions to Muslims, there would've been no resentment in Hindus like me' hurt me a lot. Religion should be practised in your own house. Don't impose your likes or dislikes on the society.
Date sent: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 11:09:22 -0500
From: shams haason <haason@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Present Imperfect
I see Hindus praising Varsha and Muslims denouncing her. I guess as another Muslim, this article may fall on deaf ears, but as a regular visitor to this
excellent forum called Rediff, I must express my views for others to
hear as well.
A litany of similarities are drawn between what is happening with
Muslims in India and other minorities in other countries. You cannot even begin to place the situation blacks in America have been placed for three hundred years and compare it with the Muslim minority in India today. Then, in this article Indian secularists are blamed for the supposed enmity of Hindus against Muslims
In your eloquent zeal, Varsha, you forget that there are hundreds of millions of Hindus who are untouchables today in India steeped in the caste system of systematic institutional racism and segregation, and these millions are a product of Hindutva religion, custom and tradition. Muslims as a minority are not the source of problems in India. It's the overwhelming poverty, population and propensity for fanatical ideas to flourish amongst the poor illiterate Hindu masses that is the problem you and people like you should be addressing.
There is the widespread practice of institutional racism and segregation of Hindus within every village and town and the Hindutva crowd do not see that as the greatest injustice. However, Muslims are targeted because they do not have a say in a Hindu-based India.
Shams
Date sent: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 14:32:46
From: kvsk <kvsk@usa.net>
Subject: Pulp friction
Very true what you have mentioned... I guess these people do not know about the greatness of Indian leaders since they have not studied about them at all. It may not be surprising if the *secularists* remove anything about
India (which they would read Hindu) from our history...
Date sent: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 17:19:20 -0800
From: Gaurang Desai <grd@corp.cirrus.com>
Subject: Indian history revisited
Wonderful piece. Congratulations. I hope articles like this one would become a regular feature on Rediff.
Gaurang R Desai
Date sent: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 09:12:08 -0800 (PST)
From: MUSKAN <iccha@yahoo.com>
Subject: Varsha's Pulp friction
Once again the same rhetoric. Your last two articles were focused, semi-biased, yet interesting. I think it is high time you start thinking of your stance. As rightly put, you will run out of topics,
and will have nothing to bitch about if you continue to hang-on to your right-wing attitude.
First, the title is inappropriate to the expressed thoughts. I see no relevance. I am interested in knowing if I missed something or was unable to read between the lines. Secondly,
you continue to quote figures that are out of context. For instance, according to you 90% of the writing corps is PINKO. Do you have evidence to substantiate this claim? Finally, on the saffronisation or rather the Indianisation of education: I think it is best if controversial and religion-loaded topics are left out of the curricula. Children (and future Indian citizens) are vulnerable and must not have to deal with wrong information. Education's emphasis must be on development rather than creating doubts and should be progressive enough to promote creativity.
Muskan
Date sent: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 15:12:55 -0500
From: "Negi, Shantanu" <SNegi@RESEARCH.USF.EDU>
Subject: Pulp friction by Varsha Bhosle
Refreshing news indeed. Interesting to note that the 'crimsoning' of Kerala has finally figured in the mainstream media. It is about time scribes like you take the Communists head on. Arun Shourie was right to point out in one of his articles about how Indian Communists have painted a rosy picture
about Communism's bloody past. All Communist icons (Stalin, Mao Tse Tung and the like) were wanton murderers.
What is amazing is that the Leeft has always hurled images of the Hitler era with liberal use of buzz words like fascism, subversion of the constitution, as charges against
the BJP. In spite of being seen by about only 3 to 4% of India as a leader, Jyoti Basu, was ready, at one point, to take on the PM's mantle. Talk of a mandate for the BJP! What should be highlighted about these now 'price
rise' chanting Commies is the annihilation of industry in West Bengal,
not to mention the complete economic collapse of the Soviet Union, as
some of the 'achievements' of their philosophy. The reason the Left is not very keen on a presidential form of government, which will strengthen the Indian executive, mauled by frequent coalition collapses, is because no
Communist can ever aspire for that position. They can only play a pernicious role in the parliamentary form of government.
If the presidential form of government is not needed then why have we had such unstable govts? If everything was good with the Constitution (drafted and accepted by the Congress) then why do we have
this instability? That means the job was not well done. Anyway, what can you and I do except inform Indians who support Communism about how their choice is unwittingly leading to an erosion of the national interest? If the central government falls because of the Communists, in the face of arm twisting by, for the sake of Commie cliches, Imperial forces (like the US), it will be a bloodless coup. All I can say is that the world community will laugh at our resolve and I will be 'red' in the face.
Shantanu Negi
Date sent: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 11:47:43 -0500
From: Gopal Ratnam <gratnam@atpco.com>
Subject: Pulp friction
Well, I honestly wish she was a sports writer too. I do feel guilty saying this since I do enjoy reading good sports writing.
Gopal Ratnam
Date sent: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 21:53:57 PST s
From: "Ram Kubal" <rkubal@hotmail.com>
Subject: BJP's agenda for education
I have read the responses to Bhosle's article on the education ministers conference. There's a vital point that a great many readers (including Varsha) seemed to have missed. The BJP has taken a great risk in forming the present government, based as it is, on a fractured mandate. There's certainly a 'hidden' agenda. Being on the treasury benches has
several pluses. For one, you can change the structure of the bureaucracy. This structure, once in place, is difficult to dislodge, even if the government falls.
One of the more positive aspects of this conference has been the awareness it created amongst the people. For instance, how many of us had heard of P D Chitlangia, and the work he has done with limited resources. I'm certain such publicity will bring in more resources to his cause. Moreover by forcing the Opposition parties to take sides on the issue of Saraswati Vandana the BJP has helped sharpen its distinctiveness vis-à-vis the Opposition.
Also by filling the various educational/historical research institutions with right-wing supporters, the BJP is ensuring that even if the government falls the agenda can be carried on. The members of these institutions have a fixed tenure and cannot be sacked without kicking up a storm.
Also the BJP can set the ball rolling on several vital issues. Let me draw your attention to the recent arrest of Romesh Sharma in New Delhi. It was clearly a very well-planned operation that was designed to hurt the Congress. The BJP can now use this 'stick' to beat the Congress even it is sitting in the Opposition. The 'fiasco' at the education conference fits very nicely into this game plan.
Date sent: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 11:51:06 PST
From: "Jagannathan Thinakaran" <jagannathant@hotmail.com>
Subject: Defence forces
I entirely agree with the author's view as to the important and
indispensable role the army in specific and the paramilitary in
general play in the preservation of democracy, or at least its facade.
I beg to differ on her view that India sucks! It does not. It's the bureaucracy that sucks; politicians suck. But not India. I agree that the US is the exemplar of advanced citizenship, but that is because its people for better or worse are of the intolerant kind, they are litigation crazy. The Indian common man on the other hand is of the persevering kind, politicians abuse him, bureaucracy mocks him, he still perseveres in the hope of a better tomorrow. Some might think that as a sign of weakness. How does one think about fundamental rights when ones
own daily existence is in question? In the entire Indian scenario, the common man is the real hero.
India still remains poor because politicians and their likes KNOW that the only way they can stay in power is by keeping the population poor. Politicians are just power-hungry! Does one really think that the BJP government did the nuclear tests entirely in the best interests of the country or just to silence the likes of 'amma' Jayalalitha. To me the tests did more harm than good.
Jagannathan
Date sent: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 00:44:47 EST
From: Jethro1234@aol.com
Subject: Varsha zindabad
Varsha, your article was very emotional and realistic. Millions of young Hindus feel the same way. Keep up the good work.
Varsha Bhosle
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