Muslim India

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

A LETTER TO THE EDITOR:


BJP SPEAKS WITH FORKED TONGUE

Sunday, it is Rajnath Singh with his call for old Hindutva baggage of discarded slogans of 370, common civil code, and the whole litany of their pet planks. Monday, it is L. K. Advani, with his more sugary, but equally transparent slogans of opening up to minorities and the suppressed castes. It is hard for the diehards to understand that they cannot fool all the people all the time.

There is no doubt that Sangh Parivar’s deep commitment to its outdated communal ideological formations have kept the party from disintegration. However, it is equally true that Indian people have shown it again and again that they by instinct and temperament are not as fundamentalists as the Brahminical hate-mongers would like them to be. BJP did win spectacular results through its well-tuned its violence-led campaigns, of Babri and post Godhra Gujarat. However, it got them as many admirers as detractors around the country, if not more. Hindutva’s core appeal is restricted to a core group. It cannot be translated to become the national obsession that could get BJP its cherished majority to rule India, without any coalition partners. India has changed so dramatically over the last 2 decades at least, that no single party can win a majority until unless it possibly organises a full scale war with one of its neighbours and reaps an concocted patriotic vote across all differences of castes, religions, regions and group loyalties. BJP was poised for such a scenario when it allowed terrorists to move into Parliament premises and stage their attack. Vajpayee had full information of that intended attack and he had publicly announced the danger, at Sharad Pawar’s birthday bash at Mumbai’s Race Course grounds, a day earlier to the parliament attack. With such advance knowledge, it is easy to guess, why the terrorists were not stopped at the very gates. However, it would appear that even for waging a war against one’s enemy in these times, for whatever motive one can imagine, countries like India need the support of other powers, unless they are moving in on behalf of such powers. That goes to prove that violence, be that Babri, Gujarat, or full fledge wars, all are temporary devices to win electoral victories. Such nature of violence cannot be perpetrated as a permanent tool to create wave of mass indignation and win votes.

BJP will have to junk its communal baggage, cleanse its warped hate ideology, and win the hearts and minds of people by concentrating on bread and butter issues. All hate propaganda against Muslims should be openly condemned. BJP should concentrate on good governance, corruption free administration, equal opportunity to all, and positive upliftment of those suffering from benign or malign neglect, by the past governments of all hues and restore a sense of respect and dignity to all Indian citizens without any discrimination whatsoever.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com
www.ghulammuhammed.wordpress.com

Labels: Babri Masjid demolition, Bharatiya Jananta Party, BJP, Gujarat genocidal riots, Hate ideology, Lok Sabha elections

Embedded comments on IndianMuslims.in Blog:

Sudie on June 2nd, 2008 2:33 pm :
Mr Ghulam Mohammad

We had a MK Gandhi arriving 80 Years earlier through grassroot support before someone started screaming “Change”….this frail man said “Quit India” and moved masses before there was a CNN. Of course as far as you may be concerned he was a fake Indian also, as much as the entire Indian democracy and constitution.

[You stole my words. If you recall Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had settled in South Africa, founded an ashram around his creed of non-violence. British colonialists, always looking ways and means to pacify their Indian colony, right from the days of the first Indian Mutiny, chose Gandhi as a pacifier, organised his transformation from a European dude to an Indian ‘fakeer’, managed his homecoming in a big way, by getting Mohammed Ali Jinnah, (another British choice to further orderly political affairs in restless India – Jinnah never took to the street – once a lawyer always a lawyer.) to organise a grand reception in Bombay. The rest is history. GM]


I guess being genuine as per you is a prerogative of Muslim rule - the one that we see under the Taliban and under Aurangzeb.

[Sudie should focus on the current discussion on India, its democracy and its current ethnic divide between Hindus and Muslims and the extreme alternatives of Hindu or Muslim Raj. By meandering over space and time --- citing Taliban and Aurangzeb --- he is running away from serious discussion. He has every right to ask what will be the future shape of a Muslim state, organised and run like a modern state or a repeat of the old story. But using pent up fury to overtake his common sense; he is not contributing to a very serious and productive discussion.]

Let me assure you that the very fact that people like you can make statements like this under the guise of “Freedom of Speech” is proof enough that we at least respect democracy, if not, have implemented it.

[There is no doubt India of today has a great show of ‘freedom of speech’. Muslim news and views is always papered over and thrown in waste basket. Read last week’s Indian Express interview of Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendera Modi. He is seething at the very use of the word Muslim by the IE interviewer:

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/317409.html

•While B S Yeddyurappa did acknowledge your role, he also inducted a Muslim minister into the Karnataka cabinet. Should other BJP governments follow suit?

Our party has leaders from all sections of society.

•But five BJP states don’t have Muslim representation. Should Gujarat have a minister from the Muslim community?

It is time you stopped seeing people in terms of Hindus and Muslims. Let Indians live as Indians.

[For Modi, Muslims should be acknowledged as Muslims only for killing --- so they can be wiped out from Indian soil. GM]

•How does one deal with social tensions arising out of caste-based privileges?

I come from a backward community, so I would not like to comment on this. But the pie must be expanded by inclusive growth so as to enable everyone to have their share.

•Would that include the Muslims as well?

This is a stupid question. Does developmental work differentiate between a Hindu and a Muslim?

•Does Gujarat need a healing touch after the post-Godhra riots?

The cases are in the Supreme Court and then there is a commission constituted for them. It won’t be proper for me to say anything that might affect the cases one way or the other. Also, why this obsession with this Hindu-Muslim thing? Didn’t our party take the initiative for a Muslim president?

[For one Muslim nominal ceremonial president, how many Muslim lives will become free for arrests, torture, kill? How many Muslim communities will be strangled to die in their poverty and lack of economic opportunities? Is this a fair tradeoff and who is to judge on that. A known Muslim-baiter like Modi! GM]

Another current example of ‘freedom of speech’ in India that Sudie is so proud about:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080602/world/india_media_times_gujarat_sedition_1

Times of India faces sedition charges from police

Mon Jun 2, 7:07 AM

AHMEDABAD (AFP) - The Times of India said Monday it is facing sedition charges from the police for allegedly questioning the competence of a senior officer in volatile Gujarat state.

Editor Bharat Desai and a senior reporter with the Ahmedabad edition have been charged along with a photographer for the Gujarat Samachar newspaper, the Times told AFP.

The leading English-language broadsheet was seeking legal advice after being informed of the charges, although they had “not yet got copies of the charges filed against Desai and (Prashant) Dayal,” a journalist said, asking not to be named.

Ahmedabad police declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

The charges, which include criminal conspiracy, stem from a series of investigative reports questioning the alleged links of new Ahmedabad police chief O.P. Mathur with a mafia don and his ability to guarantee security in the city.

Mathur was appointed to the job just last month in Ahmedabad, the western state’s commercial capital, which is reported to figure high on the hit-list of several Islamic rebel groups.
“As a leading responsible newspaper, it was our duty to highlight the past of the man who is the new commissioner,” Desai told NDTV news channel.

The daily wrote on its front-page Monday that “the reports essentially were a scrutiny of the track record of the top cop in view of the challenge posed by terrorists.”

Hundreds of journalists and rights activists protested Monday outside Mathur’s office, chanting slogans against attempts to “muzzle the media.”

“This is a conspiracy against freedom of the press and we want that everyone across the country speaks up against this,” said Rathin Das, a senior journalist with the rival Hindustan Times.

Rights activist Cedric Prakash said the charges were “symbolic of the fascist mindset of an administration which does not care about the constitutional rights of its citizens, especially freedom of speech and expression.”

Gujarat, ruled by Hindu nationalists, witnessed widespread rioting in 2002 when mainly Hindu mobs rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods killing at least 2,000 Muslims.

The rioting followed a fire in a train carriage that killed 59 Hindu pilgrims.]





If your perception of justice to Muslims is about Feudal lords enjoying harems, exploiting poor peasants and seeking Jehad; I guess India then will never be your country.

[This harangue is not worth responding to. Feudalism worked across religions.]

India wants to be a where hard work, perseverance pays.

[Hard work, intelligence, merit are all tools of exclusion by the previllaged classes. Welfare states have other more humane inclusive criteria to sustain a peaceful and harmonious society.]

Yes, we have our problems - a multi-cultural, poverty stricken population but we are moving in the right direction with our eyes towards the stars. Where as you seem to be focused on past g(l)ory of “Muslim” Rule revisiting India.

[About the past glory: Note this quote from Lord Macaulay’s speech in British Parliament:

"I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country ….”

Can Sudie compare India of the past with India of the present? Lord Macaulay had traveled in India, in the aftermath of Mughal rule.]

I will be interested to know what as per you is genuine secularism. Saudi Arabia, Taliban, Pakistan or Iran perhaps?? Of course the success of “fake” muslim professionals coming from middle classes (and not feudal landowners) under this “fake” democracy is not a factor worth considering.

Labels: British India, freedom of speech, Hindus, India, Lord Macaulay, Mahatama Gandhi, Mughal India, Muslims

COMMENTS POSTED ON IndianMuslims.in BLOGSITE:
By Ghulam Muhammed on June 1st, 2008 9:00 am

I am surprised that Sudie feels Brahmins are so innocent that if they are named in any context, an injustice is being committed. He should read literature by Dalits and Dravidians, with open mind to know how strongly they have suffered injustices meted out by the racist Brahmins. Muslims have suffered at their hands, especially during the partition. Partition was cleverly imposed on Muslims, both by the British to carve out a ‘military outpost’ for themselves, by exploiting Jinnah’s ego as well as his loyalty to Aga Khan, who were old loyalists of the Crown and were very judiciously used by the British whenever they needed them. The Brahmins in Indian National Congress were represented by Pandit Nehru, who with Gandhi and Patel, agreed to partition India, with a sinister conspiracy to rid India of Muslims. Brahmins, themselves migrants to India, made out as if all Muslims, and overwhelming majority of them in united India, were not from outside but were and are the real sons of the soil. The whole community that formed about 30 percent in British India was divided in three antagonist groups, by Nehru and Indira, both Brahmins. In sixty years of Indian independence, Muslims have been so devilishly persecuted for the alleged sin of partition, that they had no confidence left to challenge the false propaganda of the power grabbers. In United India, one can see that Muslim population percentage with a democratic constitution, would have been ruling the whole subcontinent. I can go on and on, listing the sins of Brahmins and Brahminical conspiracies. The trouble with Sudie is that he cannot see his back. There is no smoke without the fire. If Brahmins are clearly pointed out as the culprits in the plight of the Muslims, one can see how all Brahminical political groups — Congress, BJP, Communists — all led by Brahmins are blatantly perpetrating crimes against Muslims and still hide behind the pious garb of secularism. A day will come, when the 3% Brahmins will not be able to concoct and flaunt the 85% Hindus as majorities. And for their atrocities on OBC, Dalits and Muslims, they will be singled out and ostracised in the same manner as they have ostracised others.

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Sudie on June 1st, 2008 12:02 am

I somehow see a lot of anger against the “Brahmins”. I wonder what these refering are to. Is it claiming that “Brahmins” get special privileges in India?; if its so I would surely like to find out where. Or is it that Brahmin have an additional edge in the education system. In a system that judges peple just by marks and not by overall personality, I must say that in comparison to the US , India is much more democratic. At least in the US one can show ones family influence to get into the Ivy league universities. No such opportunity exists in the elite Indian institutions.
Too much time is spend finding scapegoats - whether its the “Muslims” or the “Brahmins”. Effort would be better spend to ensure that the classes who clamour for priviledges can perform as well as the so called “forward” caste students. Needless to mention - a frustrated soul more often than not seeks invisible enemies that introspects the flaws within.

Labels: Brahmins original immigrants, British conspiracy in division of India and creation of Division of Muslims of Indian subcontinent in 3 groups, Gandhi, Jinnah, Muslims, Pandit Nehru, Patel