Santosh Helekar: I absolutely do see a denial because Marshall did not mention that the swami was murdered, and the violence started in retaliation for that murder, as all mainstream media outlets reported.
Response: Pl refer to below post "Communal fires continue to rage in Orissa's Kandhamal district with reports of more homes and prayer houses being burnt by those protesting last week's murder of a Hindu leader, an official said on Tuesday. The communal violence erupted on the evening of Aug 23, when Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) central advisory committee, and four others were killed by suspected Maoist guerrillas at his Jalespata ashram in Kandhamal." http://www.goanet.org/post.php?name=News&list=goanet&info=2008-September/author&post_id=166078 The lies of Santosh stand exposed. The dotor is badly in need of more crutches of others to bolster his arguments. Interestingly, today's editorial in Times of India will further expose Santosh's stand on the violence. I have marked in bold relevant words and sentences. Breaking Point The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has been one of the BJP's longest standing state-level allies. It has also been one of the NDA's most reliable pillars. Yet, on Saturday, its leader Naveen Patnaik came up with a seat-sharing offer the BJP could not but refuse. The BJP stormed out of Orissa's coalition government<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/EDITORIAL-COMMENT--Breaking-Point/articleshow/4246498.cms>in retaliation. According to CPM bigwig Prakash Karat, events in Orissa make for a political "game-changer". For one, the Left appears keen on making state-level numbers stack up for the chief minister. For another, it views the BJD as a prize-catch for the third front-in-the-making. What sits well with it is the BJD's "secular" credentials, which Patnaik is felt to have reasserted by breaking with a party accused of winking at the* anti-Christian pogroms in Kandhamal.* Patnaik may well have taken a calculated gamble by shifting from political right to left. But his timing puts a question mark over his motives. BJD-BJP ties lasted 11 years, a Aperiod marked by anti-Christian eruptions dating back to the Graham Staines murder when Patnaik was a central minister in the NDA government in New Delhi. More recently, he was criticised for continuing to sup with the* BJP, which seemed to condone the Kandhamal conflagration as a supposed reaction to VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda's killing.* By changing tack on election eve on grounds of "winnability'', Patnaik invites the charge of political opportunism. The BJP, on its part, should see the limits to the politics of exclusivism and of manipulating religious sentiments. It clearly took the BJD for granted, pushing the wrong buttons by charging its own ally of going slow in the Laxmanananda case and going soft on proselytisers. As in Gujarat, it seemed to want to encash the sectarian polarisation sought to be created by saffron extremists like the VHP and Bajrang Dal. Whether in Orissa or in Karnataka, its proclaimed respect for social pluralism and harmony has come to be questioned, to the cost of its image. Pre-poll alignments are tested by post-poll arithmetic and so aren't reliable indicators of the kind of tectonic shift Karat has spoken of. But there's no denying the NDA has suffered a big blow. Its prime ministerial candidate L K Advani was hoping to keep the coalition intact. As in the past, that ambition stands dented. M Karunanidhi's and Ram Vilas Paswan's exit before the general elections<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/EDITORIAL-COMMENT--Breaking-Point/articleshow/4246498.cms>in 2004 cost the BJP. Later, the TDP's walkout robbed the NDA of a major regional ally. Today, the BJD has left the fold. The BJP has prospered down the years by partnering regional outfits playing football with secularism. But Orissa is proof such gains have a date of expiry http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/EDITORIAL-COMMENT--Breaking-Point/articleshow/4246498.cms I think now that Santosh has been exposed, it is time to move on before the debate degenerates into abuse. Regards, Marshall