[nukkad] [nukkad] Re: Re: [nukkad] Re: RE: [nukkad] rightist newspaper

["Net Geek" <>]

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Dear Ninad
          I will try my level best to address some of the issues raised by 
you.

>The "THEME" of my mail is "TO CONDEMN THE KILLING OF 4 MARKSISTS WHICH 
> >HAPPENED DUE TO THE DIRECT ORDERS FROM A PRIEST OF A CHURCH TO THE 
> >GANGSTERS"

I fully agree with you. No one can justify killings, be it in the name of 
religion or ideology and irrespective of whether the perpetrator is a padre, 
pujari, sant or maulana.

>Here the "ISSUE IS NOT THE CONVERSION, THE ISSUE IS FORCED CONVERSION >AND 
>CONVERSION BY THE POWER OF MONEY, WHCH WE THINK IS WRONG"

Forced conversions practiced by any religion is certainly wrong and 
unethical. Be it Hindus, Christians or Muslims. An individual being forced 
to convert to Hinduism is also conversion as per definition. Agreed? Now 
have a look at this news item.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/110801/detnat03.asp

What are your comments about this incident, as an individual? Is “SEVA” 
ready to fight a legal case based on this incident in the same token as the 
one being done against the accused priest in Tripura? I’m in no way 
suspecting your sincerity and dedication but just bringing to your notice 
that there are forced conversion into Hinduism as well. Isn’t it our duty to 
fight the evil of forced conversions without any double standards?

>Why are you telling us about the Christianity?? Why are you telling us 
> >about conversions?? What's relevance of that over here.

Because there is still a tendency among people to have a narrow and 
jaundiced view about Christians in India. Christians are viewed as an 
intolerant bunch that rubbishes other religious faiths, their rites, and 
beliefs. The posting by Nelson will make people understand that Indian 
Christians are not a homogeneous entity and varies from region to region, 
state to state and based on their beliefs. If you feel this reasoning is not 
enough kindly rubbish it.

>and further to "CRITICIZE THE MEDIA FOR THEIR INDIFFERENT TREATMENT >AND TO 
>ACCEPT THAT MEDIA IS BIASED"

To start with, I’m under no illusion of the “Indian Fourth Estate” winning 
any accolades for journalistic excellence. But to put the entire blame for 
lack of publicity of the two events cited by you on the indifference and 
bias of the press is nothing but witch-hunt gone too far. I came to know 
about the slaying of RSS volunteers in Tripura from the internet edition of 
the leading English dailies. And the news was presented as one of the main 
item. I have no background in journalism or news publishing so please 
correct me if wrong. To the best of my knowledge all the major news items 
are released by news agencies like PTI and Reuters. The newspapers or media 
develop them into stories and publishes them. A reporter’s duty is to 
present the facts and not to spice up the  news item as deemed by his 
imagination. Then there are investigative journalists who bring out scoops 
based on tedious research and a little bit of detective work. Same is the 
case of stories leaked by external sources. Any reputed newspaper always 
crosschecks the facts before publishing them; else they stand to loose 
public faith. Now coming to the incidents you mentioned, Was it ever bought 
to the notice of the major national news dailies? If yes were the facts 
presented in a credible manner? Was there sufficient evidence to back up 
your arguments? If in spite of all this if the item was not published, then 
the newspaper may have chosen to omit it based on maybe policy. But still 
how can all the major newspapers in the nation tread the same path. It is a 
known fact that no two newspapers have the same guidelines when it comes to 
selecting stories. Also there seems to be no logical reasoning as to why any 
newspaper should omit this item. It has all the makings to become the lead 
story. So as you can see there are a lot of other factors that can be 
attributed to the lack exposure of your stories. Isn’t a bit early and 
far-fetched to accuse the whole press community for that. Let me assure you 
that I do not doubt the integrity of your statements. I fully trust your 
words; the above attempt is just to analyse the role of press.

>How many RSS's Pracharak's names and address you want who were killed >in 
>Kashmir, and fortunately whose information is there in Government >Database 
>and now, their families are getting pensions b'coz they died >there while 
>serving our Military when our Military was fighting >against Pakistani 
>Trained Millitants????

Well, from your above statement it is clear that those who died fighting Pak 
sponsored militants are military personnel. There is definitely the 
possibility of some army personnel having allegiance to RSS but it is 
nothing but a coincidence. They lost their lives as army personnel, not as 
an RSS volunteers. There are other army personnel risking their lives 
serving in Kashmir who are in no way associated to RSS. Are their sacrifices 
in any way inferior? Moreover we are not looking at the role of army. No one 
is raising any doubts about the ability of our armed personnel. My belief is 
that Nelson in his posting mentioned about the so-called self-proclaimed 
nation lovers and protectors of Hindus and Hindutva like Shiv Sena, VHP and 
Bajrang Dal who have this wrong notion of patriotism i.e. protecting Hindus 
means persecuting non-Hindus (Nelson, please correct me if I’m wrong).  In 
this context isn’t it fair to put forward the argument to these fake 
patriots to proceed to Kashmir where Hindus are facing persecution at the 
hands of Pak sponsored mercenaries?

>LET'S TALK SOME SENSE HERE SHALL WE??? IF YOU HAVE SOME COMMENTS FROM >YOUR 
>OWN EXPERIENCES, NOT BASED ON THE EXPERIENCES OF OTHERS. I TALK >ON THE 
>BASIS OF MY EXPERIENCES"

Since the reference is on RSS, kindly allow  me to put forward my comments 
and yes based on my own experience.  I have no formal association with RSS.  
However during my college days in the early eighties I was a member of KSU 
(I), the student wing of Congress. I had a very good working relationship 
with my counterparts in ABVP, despite the fact that we belonged to rival 
camps. We narrowed our ideological differences and worked jointly with other 
parties when it came to opposing the ruling college union headed by leftist 
SFI, for causes common to all.  In fact I have attended a couple of meetings 
in a local shakha (as a guest) on the insistence of  one of my ABVP friend.  
The pramukh was a senior Chemistry lecturer in our college and the crowd 
comprised of young students, government staff, social workers etc. Study 
sessions were very structured and conducted with in an impressive manner. 
Compared to the same sort of exercises provided by the leftists, the RSS 
sessions stood apart. Discipline was of high standards. I never agreed or 
rather opposed with what they stood for but always had a guarded respect for 
them. They always had very clear-cut and well defined aims like instilling 
national pride, serving the nation, volunteer help where it is needed the 
most like sites of natural disasters etc. This was in early eighties. Now 
let us fast forward to the new millennium. Between now and then a lot of 
water has flowed under the bridge, Bofors scandal, Mandal agitation, Rath 
Yatra and the unfortunate Babri Masjid demolition incident. During this 
period I was totally dissociated from any social activity and later I left 
the country for career reasons. During my visit to India during 
November/December 2000, I came across the very same Chemistry professor who 
was formerly an RSS pramukh. Over cups of tea and snacks we discussed 
various issues. He was quite disappointed when the subject of shakha 
activities came to fore. He lamented about the absolute lumpenisation of the 
organisation. The present chief was BMS union leader, a repeat offender and 
high on the black list of police. His only notable achievement was the 
conduct of a couple of hartals and bandhs resulting in destruction of public 
property and bringing in inconvenience to the common public.  Indiscipline 
was the order of the day. The gatherings now mostly comprised of rowdy 
elements from VHP and Bajrang Dal and was patronised by highly shady 
characters. Even the literature being provided was in stark contrast to what 
was available in the yesteryears, which glorified the deeds of RSS 
volunteers in rescuing Hindus and Sikhs during the time of partition. The 
current ones were nothing but utter hate speech putting the blame of the 
present day mess squarely on non-Hindus and the need to make them pay for 
their past deeds. And yes the present motto of the organisation was nothing 
but building a Ram temple in Ayodhya followed by Kashi and Mathura, a far 
cry from the one during eighties. . In short the whole organisation was 
hijacked by lumpen elements. I also paid a courtesy visit to my old ABVP 
friend in college whose insistence had led me to attending the shakha 
meetings. He is now based in Kochi and well settled with his family. His 
anger and outburst was really surprising. He confided to me the sense of 
betrayal he felt because of the current direction of the organisation.  He 
does believe in RSS and its cause but in no way want to be associated with 
the current crop of cadets. I believe now you understand my background and 
real life experience based on which I’m commenting on RSS. I’m not basing my 
opinion with a prejudiced and hawkish view but facts. Till last year I was 
trying hard to distinguish RSS as an organization different from others. But 
not hereafter because what we have in place of RSS now is an unruly bunch of 
rowdies and not volunteers. Their vision is so contrived and has no sense of 
direction. If you are under any illusion that I'm a Congress sympathiser 
then you are mistaken. My 3 year stint in KSU was more than enough to ope my 
eyes into what is actually happening in that party, which ultimately made me 
to hate that party more than anyone else. The above negative transformation 
is not unique to RSS. There was another party by name MSM (Muslim Students 
Movement) who really had a dynamic cadre and conducted some really 
interesting seminar based on Quran like "Significance of Lent Period" (if my 
memory is right that was the title). The present state of that party is even 
even worse, pathetic and stinking than all the rest. Now I have such a hated 
for the Indian political establishment as a whole.

My apologies for the lengthy autobiography of mine, but couldn’t make it any 
shorter. I will be happy to debate any issue and I’m more than willing to 
change my opinion if I’m convinced that my observations were wrong.


Bye



Netgeek
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