Santosh Helekar had forwarded a post of Basilio Monteiro under the above heading. In response I had posed a few questions to him as under:
I had asked him to answer the foll questions: 1. Would he classify or term the violence in the Dangs in December 1998 as acts of discrimination? ( Incidentally, the mastermind of the violence Swami Assemanand is in the docks for masterminding several other violent attacks all over India and in the latest issue of Caravan, has implicated the RSS top brass. Refer: http://caravanmagazine.in/ ) 2. Would he classify or term the violence in Kandhamal in 2007/08 as acts of discrimination? ( a documentary Kandhamal Unresolved was screened recently at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF). The film is available on YouTube: *http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPu0r01wDlA <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPu0r01wDlA>* 3. Would he classify or term the violence in Karnataka that soon followed Kandhamal as acts of discrimination? Report of Justice Michael Saldanha that inquired into the violence is attached. Refer: http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Religion-communalism/2011/saldanha_report.pdf 4. How would he classify the various Anti-Conversion Acts passed in some of the states? 5. How would he classify the ideology of the RSS which targets the muslim and christian minority, out of which flows most of the violence? Till date there has been no response. Therefore it could mean that he has no answers or does not wish to engage in a discussion/ debate on what are essentially his personal perspectives, not necessarily based on facts. So far as Santosh Helekar is concerned, as a sympathizer/ apologist of the sangh parivar, who has in the past justified / defended the rapes, killings and violence against innocent Christians in Kandhamal, his views are on expected lines and he is the last person we should take seriously on this subject in this forum. Regards, Marshall *Basilio Monteiro wrote:>>I would like to offer a few random (not exhaustive) thoughts for consideration about the complex issue of >"religious persecution" in India. It is a sensitive and provocative issue. Of course, a few Catholic >priests and nuns get killed, and that is painfully sad; the murder of a priest or a nun in the hands of a >non-catholic is not necessarily an act of persecution.>Basilio has presented a reasonable case on the issue of religious persecution in India. It should throw some light on why the claims of some Indian and foreign religious organizations/activists about widespread religious persecution in India against Christians in particular, are by and large exaggerations and distortions, although incidents of violent crimes or harassment involving religious fervor and discrimination do occur and have occurred from time to time throughout history. - Santosh Helekar* - Previous message<https://www.mail-archive.com/goanet@lists.goanet.org/msg101790.html> - View by thread<https://www.mail-archive.com/goanet@lists.goanet.org/index.html#101791> - View by date<https://www.mail-archive.com/goanet@lists.goanet.org/maillist.html#101791> - Next message<https://www.mail-archive.com/goanet@lists.goanet.org/msg101793.html> Reply via email to [image: The Mail Archive] <https://www.mail-archive.com/> - The Mail Archive home <https://www.mail-archive.com/> - goanet - all messages<https://www.mail-archive.com/goanet@lists.goanet.org/> - goanet - about the list<https://www.mail-archive.com/goanet@lists.goanet.org/info.html> - Previous message<https://www.mail-archive.com/goanet@lists.goanet.org/msg101790.html> - Next message<https://www.mail-archive.com/goanet@lists.goanet.org/msg101793.html>