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July 1, 1998
SPECIALS
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How Readers responded to Varsha Bhosle's recent columns
Date sent: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 12:22:44 -0500 Bhosle brings out the hidden agenda of the Marxists, who have only one goal -- to destroy Hinduism by any means. Indonesia under Suharto eliminated mercilessly millions of the Communists and perhaps he knew something we don't know. We have to ask why Hindu lives mean nothing to Surjeets and Bardhans. Not once do they mention the murders of Kashmiri Pandits or Munnanis while day-in and day-out they talk of Babri, Babri. Not once do they talk about the dozens of temples destroyed in Kashmir or Kerala (and the hundreds destroyed in Pak and Bangladesh). People should come forward to attack the double standards of these leftists and expose their hypocrisy.
T R Rao
Date sent: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 03:15:53 -0700 I know your magazine is secular in nature and people who have diverse opinions are allowed to express themselves. But by giving space to immature, stupid and hatred-prone writers you are handing over precious real estate on the Web to the Hinduvta brigade. This article makes me sick. It is full of hatred. I appeal to you not to give space to this writer in future. Radil Jobbs
Date sent: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 23:34:49 -0700 An utter nonsense article from Varsha Bhosle! Either she is ignorant about Tamil Nadu or she suffers from *selective amnesia* (borrowed from her beloved alliance partner, the *convent educated* Jayalalitha). If we analyse the incidents that happened in Tamil Nadu during the past several years, we can understand that the Muslims are left in a completely defensive situation to prove their loyalty to India voluntarily than any other community. There is not even a single area (like politics, administration, education, business, wealth, health care etc) in which the Indian Muslims are better placed than the Hindus. A few Muslim fundamentalists in North India might have expressed their loyalty to a Muslim country because of the historical ill-feelings continued from the Moghul and British rule. Such a minority feeling NEVER existed among the TN Muslims and they were always an integral part of Tamil Nadu and India even before Independence. This sense of religious harmony was preserved by Periyar's rationalist movement in spite of the majority of Periyar's supporters retaining their faith in Hinduism. At the beginning of the eighties, many Hindu fanatic movements penetrated into TN and started sowing hate-feelings against the Muslims, pushing them toward a state of self-defence. Fundamentalists like Varsha Bhosle used every opportunity to distort facts to spit venom against Muslims; example the Meenakshipuram conversions. Contrary to Varsha's stories, those conversions were rather a form of protest adapted by the Dalits against the ill-treatment mooted to them by high caste Hindus. Many common people of the Hindu community believed these stories and started commenting against Muslims and their religious practices, as if they were free of any superstition. I could see this attitude among many of my own friends and relatives. Weakening of the Periyar movement thanks to corruption and petty fights of the DK-DMK-ADMK leaders further reinforced this. Under this background, business interests started exploiting the Hindus as well as the Muslims in highly commercial cities like Coimbatore and Madras. Because of sheer business competition, the traders from both the communities have indulged in intensifying the hatred among the two communities. Unfortunately the middle class seemed to have fallen prey to this tactics. The communal programme against the Muslims (Frontline, March 7) unleashed by the entire police force with the help of the Hindu fanatics in Coimbatore during November last year would not have happened but for the psychological support from the Hindu middle class. For instance, members of my own family reacted to this violence indifferently. On one hand they were critical of violence, but on the other, they justified it saying that the Muslims deserved this. In summary, TN Muslims were first pushed toward a state of self-defence when Hindu fanatics maligned them with false propaganda, resulting in the growth of Islamic fundamentalism for the first time in Tamil Nadu. Business animosity among the Hindu and Muslim traders encouraged sporadic clashes between the two fundamentalists in different parts of the state during the last decade. Recently in Coimbatore, Muslims were terrorised by the police with the help of Hindu fanatics, and consequently sizeable number of Muslim youths seemed to have joined movements like Al-Umma which has transformed into a terrorist outfit at the hands of foreign destabilising forces. It cannot be denied that Muslim terrorism, which currently seems to have outgrown and taken an upper hand, should be wiped out completely. However, the terrorism from the Hindu community and police force should also be eliminated totally. In addition, the false propaganda of the Hindu fanatic movements should be countered by banning their activities in Tamil Nadu completely. While we, as a Hindu middle class, cry foul against politicians and parties for appeasing the Muslims and rightfully condemn the government for its inefficiency and bias, we remain silent when the Hindu fanatics and the political parties supporting them create hatred against Muslims. When the middle class wished to protest the TN government against its inefficiency and the DMK for its biased approach, they should have voted a third front like Puthiya Thamizhagam, or at least Independents. It was completely suicidal, if not diabolical, to vote for the BJP which politically represents Hindu fascists. S Sankarapandi
Date sent: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 09:39:04 -0700 Varsha got the facts mixed up. The DMK returned to power in 1989. The renaming of Dindigul district happened after that. The Meenakshipuram conversions dates back to Indira Gandhi, i e, before 1984. Don't mix these up. About opposition to POTA, let us get real; We all know about the human rights record of our police. The Opposition parties have reasons for their worry, they just believe these tough laws could be misused. Praba
Date sent: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 14:32:23 -0700 (PDT) So we have Ms Bhosle at her rabble-rousing best. Now there would be no need to point this out to a rational person, but Ms Bhosle (and her followers) are nothing if not irrational -- murder has already been declared illegal and is punishable (and often by death) in India! If we fail to look at the problem squarely in the eye and strictly enforce the law about murder, we can arm ourselves with TADA or POTA or MISA or any combination from the alphabet soup and we would still continue to fail. And what's more, by giving a "free hand" to law-enforcement agencies -- hardly a disciplined force by any stretch of imagination -- we would most probably "succeed" in turning a bad situation into a worse one. The idea of giving up a "little bit" of our freedom in exchange for security might seem the most wonderful thing since sliced bread, but it has never worked and never will. As Benjamin Franklin wisely stated : "Those who would sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety".
Date sent: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 18:08:40 -0400 Varsha, How will TADA/POTA solve the murders of so many Hindus? Putting some guys (whoever the SP thinks as trouble-makers) behind bars will only aggravate the problem. Fuels fundamentalists to start a propaganda and convince a few other non-fundamentalists to become extremists. Wake up Varsha. Too many people read your articles, you better be more responsible. Putting a person behind bars without trial is in no way going to solve the problem. It would be an abuse of human rights. Once such measures are in place, our police will use them against everyone, including you (try writing about some corrupt SP or IG. There are plenty of them). The only way to solve is quick justice and capital punishment. Put them in jail for 60 years/10 life sentences. If a person can be put in jail within 3 months of a murder, I will say justice is being done... Arun
Date sent: Sat, 27 Jun 1998 18:20:01 +0530 Kudos for the well written, well researched and logically substantiated article. The author deserves praise for writing about this issue in a very positive and convincing manner, cutting across all political lines. Shashi
Date sent: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 02:43:32 EDT Very good article. Amulya Tyagi
Date sent: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 11:53:04 PDT Varsha is very right in thinking and approach. She puts out clearly the selfish and myopic logic of our leaders. But we Indians have never been logical given our history of casteism, fundamentalism and terrorism. Some people who were siding with the British learned the trick from their masters, got the freedom for free, were forgiven and embraced by the rest. Most of the dirty politicians today are descendants of those very people who simply don't have loyalty in their blood. They would rather pamper one at the cost of another. In our great country a leader or party is secular if it identifies Muslims and protects them from peaceful Hindus and is communal if it decimates the differences and fights for equality and Common Civil Code! The idea for providing social justice is "reservation". Reservations should be given to a person not because he needs it but because he is lower caste by birth, merit is illegal. However, a student who is rich by birth should not use his birth privilege to pay donations to get admission BECAUSE it ignores merit. "The biggest mistake is to leave the enemy when you have a chance to kill him" said Lord Krishna. Manjeet S Rana
Date sent: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 12:24:46 Madam: No doubt TADA was an effective weapon against crime. But the question is not about effectiveness. Rather, it is about its being just/unjust and used/misused. Any law which takes jurisdiction away from the justice system and places it in the hands of armed forces is always bound to be misused. In that case, why not simply abolish the whole justice system and let cops decide who is guilty and who is not? Many other countries have much harsher systems -- China, Saudi and obviously they have less crime rates. Many countries cut the hands of thieves and stone the rapists. What about adopting such systems? I bet theft and rape would occur in generations... Obviously, you don't think before opening your mouth. Anyone who has seen the functioning of the Indian police force, especially in rural/remote areas knows the truth behind the encounters and self defence crap. It is normal for the Indial police to take people (criminals/non-criminals) from their home, kill in the night and place a country made pistol nearby. Ask the people from Punjab and Kashmir, they will tell you. And yes, it was not the (your) great Indian middle class which asked for the Act being scrapped. Because it is our neighborhood which is raided during the riots as enemy camps and 90% of the TADA detainee belong to my community, not yours. And that's more reason why people protested against it, because it was not only unjust it was being misused against one particular community. Madam, you may be selfish enough to take comfort in the fact that your security is being maintained at the cost of some innocent people being put into custody with no access to legal system and no means to deny the false accusations, but anyone with the least humanity will oppose such a system. Zaigham A Kazmi
Date sent: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 17:31:46 PDT Dear Varsha, You sound like an escapist turned arm-chair philosopher. Quit whining. Saikat Banerjee
Date sent: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 16:04:51 -0400 I think this article completely misses the point. It addresses the issue that most people work for money and if you already have enough of it why work. Ok, but what about the joy and self satisfaction and self esteem that comes with work (surprisingly none of the feedbacks to date have addressed the issue)? Anyone who loves gardening knows the joy of seeing plants -- vegetables or beautiful flowers -- growing under one's guidance. There is no greater satisfaction than making a table or chair or toy for a loved child and seeing the look of delight on the recipient's face and seeing him/her enjoy the product of your labour. The sleep that one enjoys after a day of mental or physical work is truly the sweetest. The satisfied and proud look on a teacher's face when he/she is greeted in the marketplace by a respectful ex-student just can't be described. Though I am a staunch believer of "individualism" and "To each his own", living alone in one's own world during the nights when the whole world sleeps seems to me to be a truly astonishing and abnormal state of affairs. I think the comparison of an active and busy life with mere existence -- eating, sleeping, reading, crossword should be done by someone who has worked (even for a short time) in his/her life. An empty mind is a devil's workshop, so I wonder how a sanyasini could be broadening her mind by doing nothing except thinking all day -- oops sorry late afternoon to early morning! There is no dearth of articles about how one should continue to work and lead an active life even after retirement for longevity and better health. But I guess since we are all dead in the long run, it doesn't matter, right? Well, why doesn't every individual of the world stop all work and die as we are all dead in the long run anyway and inconsequential on the sands of time? Sorry, but there are folks with children who want to better the mankind for their children's sake. And also lots of self respecting persons who feel too proud to live off father's/husband's/wife's money. Girls who work before marriage or kids and then leave the job don't exist in a happy state of bliss -- rather they usually miss having an active, busy, social, working life!!!!! Anju
Date sent: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 13:12:08 -0400 We are indeed pathetic people. We can't wait to build shrines, ring bells, burn incense and dance around in general in front of the most inane of things, be it movie stars, Amma, or now the bomb. Is this the civilisation we brag about: a cargo cult where tribals dance around wooden, aircraft look-alikes? I wonder why the great Indian tradition of Vedic Vimanas uses equations developed by the decadent West in order to create bombs. And why the hell didn't we create them in 1300 AD to defend ourselves. After all, the stuff has been around since 'thousands of years' if we believe our holy men. Or were our holy men too deep in meditation to bother about that? In which case we suggest they go back and stay that way.
Date sent: Mon, 08 Jun 1998 21:36:29 -0700 I kind of agree with your fine articles in general and the Hindutva bomb in particular. I really do not see why so many take umbrage at your writings. In this article you have demonstrated an acute sense that most of us lack. Your intellectual acumen is boundless, and I must confess, I am surprised why more Indian Hindu writers do not write like you ?? The Muslims have done terrible things to poor Hindus and continue to do so every day of their miserable lives. China is our great enemy and Pakistan is right next to it. Both are plotting to take over India and possibly divide it amongst themselves. Don't be fooled by these brutes who are really wolves in sheep's clothing. What really amazes me is how come the rest of Indians do not share your views?? You must continue to present valid and totally justifiable arguments as a patriotic Indian. Jai Hind! Shams |
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