From
Brigadier( Retd) VRP SARATHY,
CHENNAI 09 Jul 2003
Dear Mr Dilip D'Souza,
I appreciate the pain,sentiments and conviction expressed in your article "How to lose the war on terror"(Jul 09) in REDIFF.COM. I personally feel that you need to go much deeper in your analysis of this problem and write more after an honest introspection of the wider issues involved! Let me hasten to clarify right at the beginning that I for one, do not justify the "acquittal" of the accused, in principle, in the Best Bakery case. Two wrongs do not make a right! As a retired Army person, having been exposed to some communal rites in the past, it is too simplistic to assume a high moral ground selectively, especially when the minorities are the victims!Let me highlight some aspects for your honest introspection, free of emotional, "secular" compulsions!
(1) Why blame Zaheera, Lal Mohammad, Satnam Bai and Darshan Kaur, when Bollywood big guns with money, power and resources like Shah Ruk Khan and Salman Khan had turned hostile contradicting their own earlier stands, in courts, especially considering that a female star like Preity Zinta(the real Bollywood hero?) can stick to her stand! How come that in the fifties Dilip Kumar despite being a talented actor felt the need to assume a Hindu identity, whereas today there are more than a dozen Muslim (Khan)Bollywood actors openly flaunting their original Muslim name and identity with a large(including Hindu) fan following in a highly visible medium like cinema, and yet the myth about minorities(Muslims) being persecuted is given space in "secular" English media??
(2) When all the three Abrahamic religions(Jewish,Christianity &Islam) believe in proactive counter violence to avenge death of their own persons (as is the case with Israel, US and the the Muslim jehadis), only the reaction of the Hindus in retaliation of a brutal terrorist violence like in Godhra is adversely commented upon! What about those innocent Afghan and Iraqi nationals who had nothing to do with Osama or Saddam(like in Best Bakery case ), and yet had to die (as "collateral damage"!!!)as a result of American "daisy cutters"?. How is this different from some innocent Muslims being at the receiving end after Godhra?
(3) Unlike in the West there were no organised religious wars (Crusades, Jihads) in the entire history of India! It is one of the very few countries in the world with no history of anti-Semitism. India had given shelter to all the persecuted minorities in the world; Syrian Christians, Armenians, Parsis, Jews, Tibetans and so on. Thus Christians, Jews, Muslims came initially and were followed by Portuguese, French, and finally the British who ruled the undivided India!
(4) All religions have co-existed peacefully and have grown here. Hindu tolerance for centuries has been well-recognised world over! The basic mindset of majority of Hindus is broad-minded religious belief that all religions lead to (same) God, a trend distinctly absent in any other, especially Abrahamic (Jewish, Christian and Islam) religions.
(5) The Hindus did not retaliate even once as a community, when its members were pulled out of buses (like in Muktsar) and killed in cold blood, during the entire period of Punjab insurgency. The much maligned RSS, counselled restraint on the Hindu community! Hindus have been selectively killed in J&K, almost on daily basis by Pak sponsored Islamic militants executing a diabolic ethnic cleansing, to which there has been no retaliation either in J&K or elsewhere in the country where Hindus are in majority!! To call the Gujarat riots as “ethnic cleansing”, having been silent to the actual ongoing ethnic cleansing in J&K for the past three decades, is intellectual dishonesty! A community, which has consistently shown such exemplary restraint for more than three decades, is being accused day in and day out as communal, intolerant and medieval!
(6) The reason as to why the Hindus retaliated as a community, to Godhra terrorism needs to be introspected by “secular” politicians/ media. Is the “majority” community, which has been tolerant of targeted killing of its members over the years getting increasingly insecure, developing a “siege” mentality (normally associated with minority community) losing faith in getting justice from the institutions of the Government?
(7) The “Hindus being intolerant towards Muslims” theme ignores past record; When a Hindu Goddess (Saraswati) was painted in nude, Sita (painted) tied to Hanuman’s tail by the likes of MF Hussain, showing Sita as Ram’s sister by groups like the “SAHMAT”(an unnecessary and avoidable provocation), the Hindus showed exemplary tolerance and did not indulge in communal riots! They were told to grin and bear these sacrileges, and view these artistically! Contrast this with banning of Salmon Rushdie’s book in response to perceived Muslim public opinion, or the reaction of Muslims in J&K to a reported statement about Hazaratbal controversy, or their indulgence in violence in UP to alleged reports (rumours) about burning of Quran in Delhi!
(8) No political leader (or English media scribe) deemed it necessary to criticize statements made by Shahi Imam of Delhi calling on Arab countries to impose economic sanctions on India if Ram temple is constructed in Ayodhya, or for fighting with Osama-Bin Laden, for fear of offending “minority” sentiments, but pounce on Bal Thackrays and Togadias! Governments assume control of Hindu temples; religious places, but spares places of worship of other faiths! It is a pity that the Indian Christians, ignore the recent objections/destruction of a mosque in Jerusalem(on ground of being sacred to Christians, being the birth place of Jesus, do not show the same understanding in Ayodhya!!!!
(9) A “secular” majority community (Hindu) government subsidizes 150 Crores of taxpayers money every year on (Haj) pilgrimage (by Air) on Muslims, a Congress legacy, not followed in any other nation (including Muslim Pakistan).
(10) conversion is another wound often inflicted on the non-proselytising Hindu community!Christian priests have been targeting innocent people with their pet quotes "Your stone idol sinks in water whereas our cross floats and hence is the greater God"!! If the Indian Christians are honest "I cannot imagine how any Indian(Christian) can look at this and not be alarmed, outraged, ashamed and nauseated".
Believe me Mr D' Souza, I have no intentions of hurting your sentiments /feelings, but thought that I would comment on these aspects just to put the Hindu feelings in some perspective!
WITH REGARDS
Brig (Retd) VRP Sarathy
2, Agaram Road; Professors' Colony East Tambaram; Chennai- 600059
Tele ; 044-22378296 e-mail : vrpsarathy@vsnl.com