Pratap Bhanu Mehta in The Indian Express:
“Let us cut through the cant of our political class. Amarnath has become a serious communal issue. In an interview given to a Hindi daily, Narendra Modi had, in a chillingly prophetic way, described Amarnath as a second “Shah Bano”.
“Whether we like it or not, Amarnath has deepened the Hindu-Muslim divide in many respects.
“It has exposed the fact that possibilities for intercommunity reconciliation are thinning daily and revealed how every political party has huge investments in a politics of divisiveness that none is likely to divest. It has given the BJP a peg on which to hang its faltering politics. It has given Muslim fundamentalists a pretext to wage war on the infidel. It has exposed the limited capacity of the Indian state to quell violence.
“It has brought out the ways in which the Congress’s myopia and lack of initiative set the stage for a communal politics. And it has revealed the dirty secret of all us constitutional secularists: we are more interested in having somebody to beat upon than in creating the conditions for peace. As with Ayodhya, the inability to find small compromises, articulate meaningful gestures of reconciliation, might haunt us for ever.”
Read the full article: A country in 40 acres
Also read: CHURUMURI POLL: Land for the Amarnath shrine
The Omar Abdullah speech that blew away an entire a nation
Link via Chengappa R.
Good article. Yes this has been and continues to be a problem. To a large extent it still is the myopic vision of the relevant leaders what has and will continue to lead us to these type of situations. As of the media reports put it rightly it is now out of the hands of the people who started it.
OK! So, when Muslims of the valley demand that land should not be allocated to a Hindu shrine, it is justified with all the crap like demography change, Kashmiriyat, Hindu conspiracy etc…but when pundits of Jammu demand the land be given back, it is communalism?!
Déjà vu.
What happened in Karnataka when Mr. Gundu Rao gave away a popular Hindu and lately and partly a Sufi shrine, to Wakf board!?
How come the UPA became so wise and starting thinking about ecology which it had conveniently forgot when it was about Ramasetu or other Hindu related issues?
Even if it is really about ecology then should not it have tried to convince the protestors and conceive a least harmful alternative to shelter the millions of pilgrims who visit the shrine?
Myopic… as in their interests are limited to the next immediate polls and not to the future or reality!?
Thousand moons and they still haven’t learnt or probably we, the voters, have not.
PDP, NC competed with Islamists, Jehadis, anti-nationals by raising issues like Pakistani currency, Joint control of Kashmir. Congress kept mum, appeased to remain in power. Even CPIM (with 1 MLA) opposed handover of land based on crap that its demography change.
Now you pay the price for not confronting.
Pratap Mehta is the first in mainstream media who opposed speech of Abdulla Junior in Parliament that was hailed as “pathbreaking” by many, including Churumuri. Since when monopoly of land was based on religious identity as Abdulla Jr opined?
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/333674._.html
“Partitions of the mind” by Pratap Mehta is another article that was published few weeks back.
Time has come for “secularists” who are accepting rights BASED ON RELIGIOUS IDENTITY to understand its going to destroy this Country.
It goes to the credit of the Sangh publicists that these guys are able to speak the truth without being called all sort of names. Not long ago, you would have been brandished communal for saying such a thing.
And for heaven’s sake, do NOT term Jammu uprising as “Communal”. Please look at videos posted by Youtube- you will see people from ALL sections of society, profession, gender erupted in genuine anger, anguish sponteneously. Muslims also joined.
People are shouting national Song holding national flag in the hand.
Its Jammuites who revolted against Islamists, anti-nationals , extreme communal position of the valley.
If we are unable to see Jammu’s violence, protest properly- it will expand to rest of India. It has the potential to create a movement that will surpass Ayodhya easily.
The problem lies with our brand of secularism being encouraging all religions, may be more than 2 million of them, what with dera saheb kind of flavours!
Henceforth our constitution should be changed, so that
1. Government has no business to encourage any religion, whether minority or majority or median.
2. In all public functions including those in parliament and State Assemblies, Government functionaries should be made to desist from following religious practices like breaking coconut, Invoking gods and goddesses with prayers, Reading verses from Quran or Bible or Vedas, etc.
2. Government should be stopped from doling out funds/grants/subsidies to all the following:
a) No more grants for religious pilgrimages/yatras inside and outside the country. If people want to visit Mecca or Amarnath, let them do so at their own cost and peril.
b) No more grants to schools based on religion, such as Dharmic pathasalas, Madarsas, Ecumenical institutions, etc. People are capable of learning about their religion if they are interested. Why should the secular Government be in the business of teaching religion? It is unable to provide basic worldly education to our children since Independence. Why then and where is the need for the other worldly education? Also In the name of minority religions many conventional educational institutions are getting public fuds. It is laughable to think that these institutions are teaching Christian medicine, Islamic Computer science, etc.
c) All Government departments such as for managing and maintaining temples and their incomes, Religious charities, Wakf etc should be scrapped immediately. It will save some unproductive expenditure and the associated corruption wastage, as is the norm with any Government expenditure
d) All nominees of Government and Government functionaries like Governors, ministers should henceforth be withdrawn from managing committees of Temples, Gurudwaras, Masjids, Mutts, Churches, Deras etc. Let the religious minded populations run and manage their own institutions. If somebody thinks that without the Government interference these religious institutions may cheat and exploit their disciples and devotees, let it be so!
e) Government should be made to desist from providing land for any kind of religious activity, such as building a temple, church, masjid, etc or for providing land for places of religious assembly. These religious bodies are rich enough to buy land from public or ask their followers to donate their personal land and properties for the cause of their respective religions.
The Government so far has played the game of dabbling in religion, it is enough. It is time now to retire from the games of religion once and for all and start thinking about its main duty to its people.
Jai Bharath!
babuds : the root cause for all these mess is our constitution that gives SPECIAL rights to minorities to pursue their religious affairs AT TAXPAYERS MONEY.
Let Madrasas be funded by Muslims. Nobody objects.
But for short term political gain, politicians opened up pandora’s box and enacted laws, special rights, funding of religious institution.
The happenings of J&K related with SASB are MOST dangerous in Nature.
I agree with tathagata..
babuds: the govt is already “taking care” (just witness any lack of facilities in temples even after collecting hefty fee from hapless devotees) of Hindu religion. Why not extend the same “treatment” to madrassas and churches ??
ALL THE SECULAR FARTS SHOULD LISTEN TO THIS MUSLIM LAWYER
there is not communalism in jammu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6450ka44FY
Muslim lawyer from Jammu expressing his views on agitation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtQ86qpteWI
Tarun Vijay’s article
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Columnists/Tarun_Vijay/The_Right_View/Reclaiming_India/articleshow/msid-3333783,curpg-1.cms
>> ALL THE SECULAR FARTS SHOULD LISTEN TO THIS MUSLIM LAWYER
but where are those usually seen in churumuri? deafening silence.
Systemic opperssion of the hindus from time immortal by the so called political parties with stage managed elections/ guv’s has created the problem.
Its high time congress sheds its cows garb in tiger and eigther accept the appeasment theory or oppose it give up such call.
Either way, anaysts have shown that congress will be wiped clean out of this state soon due to vote divides and BJP will come to power.
We are headed towards an unprecedented communal bloodbath.
My articles on the subject can be found at http://vinodksharma.blogspot.com
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080808/jsp/opinion/story_9663131.jsp
No wonder, Swapan Dasgupta is regarded as top rightwing journalist in India today.
There is no escape for psuedos who are trying to defame this UNPRECEDENTED nationalist uprising as ‘communal’ after surrendering to jehadis, Islamists and anti-nationals of the valley.
As Dasgupta has opined, Abdulla Jr. will have to eat his word sooner than expected (as BJP will sweep the poll in Jammu) !
Let Guru Govind Singhji, the natonalist warrior saint, bless every Indian nationalist in Jammu and wherever they are.
wow! blackout!!
blackout from cognitive dissonance amongst the intelligencia. here is a event that is increasingly difficult to spin.
aarushi they were covering like it was nobodies business. a media that doesnot think much about getting into private bedrooms of ordinary citizens is unable to say it as they see it the goings on in the public square?
by any stretch of imagination, the goings on in jammu requires more coverage and discussion. free and fearless reporting ella bogaLe.
if they are only going to report events that appeal to their limited worldview, i wonder if media in india really deserves the freedom they have. worse. entire section of media has shown themselves to be propaganda machines.
oh! they will be back dont worry. some stray events need to happen for that. those will then become the centerpiece of the entire story. perhaps such ‘suitable’ events will even be manufactured. no dearth of manufacturing expertise in this area in india.
once that happens then the official story of what happenned in jammu will be written. until then, as far as intelligencia is concerned, nothing happened just some stray communalized idiots acting like hooligans.
ps: wtf were SG/MMS thinking? Jammu-walas wont react? How long did they think Gujjars, Dogras and the rest of the state would sit silent?
If mobilizing people on the basis of religion is communalism, then the present crisis is all communalism.
The last time both sides could be justifiably accused of communalism was Partition.
I hope the “nationalists” (hindu and muslim) do not think enjoy reruns.
I am not Indian but married to a Kashmiri Pandit, so I follow news about all this. The sad thing is that most Indians accuse Americans of being ignorant but they themselves do not understand their own history. Most Indians would be unable to distinguish between Kashmir Valley and Jammu, nor are they aware of their own history. They do not realize that Kashmir is already gone, that Muslims have kicked out the Pandits and the latter are unwilling to return because the government cannot guarantee their security. Keep appeasing muslim demands like that–the majority is likely to retaliate its pent up frustrations in a very unpleasant sort of way. If INdia does not deal with Islamic terrorism, conditions can brew to lead to a bloodbath not seen since partition. The Pakistanis should ask themselves are they prepared to take in 150+ million muslim brothers if something goes seriously wrong and communal violence is unleashed? Now Kashmir then somewhere else that has a majority Muslimpopulation….it will never end unless the government deals with it in a firm way. What happened to the Serbian muslims when the Serbians unleashed their pent up grievances and retaliated for the Muslim atrocities during world war two when Muslims allied with Nazis? Indians are not violent like Serbs but Pakistan should consider and Indian muslims should realize that the patience of a people can wear out when they are pushed too far.
Everyone from India–why do people not advocate a return for the Pandits–I mean not just making speeches but aggressively—for at stake here is 5000 years of history at the cultural heart of Hinduism. It is sad that the Pandits are scattered and themselves are not unified on this issue. Many have escaped the refugee camps through education and are successful through hard work wherever they happen to live. The only people who helped them were the Gujratis who gave them engineering seats at the University. Indians should fight more aggressively for their beliefs. Even Muslims realize that after the Pandits left, fundamentalism increased in Kashmir Valley, even the middle class Muslims left and the place has now become a hotbed for fundamentalists. I hear that the valley sadly is unrecognizable now.
If tears do not flow, then at least feel ashamed for the hypocracy of India’s ‘secularists’.
Watch.
http://rameshnaidoo.blogspot.com/2008/08/terror-on-kashmiri-minorities-yahoo.html
yet again progressives yield space for regressives to step in. sometimes i wonder if this entire progressive thingie in india is just a hogwash.
good cop. bad cop.
cant see the forest for the trees.
in any case i am not crying. at some point the duplicity of the valley had to show. two can play that game. go jammuites. go.
How do other countries deal with insurgents? They get rid of them. Look the Russians send in tanks right away to protect Russian interests in Georgia. I am not supporting them but just giving an example of how governments react quickly when their interests are at stake. The Indian government does nothing. They talk of how they might make Pakistan happy. They allow their own people to be kicked out of their ancestral homeland, in which they have been living even before the world knew of a religion called Islam and live in refugee tents throughout the country. And they wonder why the people in Jammu are protesting? Talk to any Pandit and they will tell you even before they were forced to leave the valley there was systematic discrimination against them by the Muslims. An Israeli journalist in the 80’s wrote about this. There can be no peace unless the original inhabitants of the valley are allowed to return to their ancestral lands. If those in Kashmir do not wish to live in India they are free to go to Azad Kashmir on the other side. Look at the difference between the two sides–without Indian government giving subsidies like in Kashmir valley to Muslims it is impoverished because the Pakistani government has done nothing to develop it.
If the valley has of now become 100 Muslims because terrorists drove out the non-Muslims people should watch and stand by? At some point the anger of the people at the injustice is going to show itself. The issue is just not about the shrine.
If the valley has of now become 100 Muslims because terrorists drove out the non-Muslims people should watch and stand by? At some point the anger of the people at the injustice is going to show itself. The issue is just not about the shrine. Yes it is communal because India lets insurgents infiltrate across the border and incite terrorists. Perhaps it is time for the Indian government to send all radical Muslims home to Pakistan where they truly belong. In the U.S. if someone does not like it, they are free to leave. It should be the same in India. These people were advocating Pakistani currency in Kashmir. Has anyone noticed the Hindus were living in peace in the Valley until 89 when Benazir used American money intended for Afghanistan to arm and send insurgents across the boarder? The problem with Kashmir is that the rest of Indians in India are unaware of the situation in Kashmir valley.
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=eCRFWStxV_4
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=u2vsztUdkpU&feature=related
Can we draw conclusion from this article that Congress has not been successful to retain its image as a Secular party,carrying the Naharuvian symbol of Rainbow party….What is the image of India under Congress rule ?