I do not agree with Rajan that Admin Noronha is anti-Hindu. But it is clear to
me that he is not a secular pluralist either. The grounds for this belief are
quite obvious. Admin Noronha is driven by an entrenched ideology. As with all
ideologies, it has outlived its purpose, if it had any purpose in the first
place. Like its counterparts, it pigeonholes everybody who does not swallow its
precepts hook, line and sinker, into a monolithic camp opposed to all that is
good and dandy in this world. That is why he, like others with similar
afflictions, uses the usual methods of negative political campaigning against
people who are different in any respect from him - the methods of guilt by
association, smear, innuendo, etc.
The other unfortunate casualty of this unreasonable outlook, beholden to a
political ideology rather than to a rational approach towards the day-to-day
transactions of regular folk, is an inability to recognize their habitual
lapses in fairness and even-handedness. The confrontational attitude that he
showed in that video amidst a sober and sensible discussion between two parties
should give you some insight into what I am talking about.
A person who is secular is first and foremost dispassionate and considerate.
She proceeds with no presumptions, or the presumption of innocence, in her
every day interactions. She recognizes that even good and decent people can be
misguided, and indeed, quite often are. I am hoping to see a glimpse of this
someday in Admin Noronha and other like-minded folk who like to think of
themselves as fighting for the secular cause.
Cheers,
Santosh
--- On Sun, 8/1/10, Frederick Noronha <fredericknoro...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Glad to note that the skin-deep
> secularists are now exposing
> themselves on Goanet.
>
> Earlier, the argument used to be "my bigots are better than
> your
> bigots". Now it seems to have shifted to: "if you challenge
> the logic
> of my bigots, I will target you instead". All while
> claiming the
> "secular" space! FN
>
>
> On 1 August 2010 05:29, Rajan P. Parrikar <parri...@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > I just took a look at the two posted videos. The
> only piece of hostility there,
> > as Dr. Helekar has noted, came from the anti-Hindu,
> communal, muckraking,
> > coward-of-a-smear-merchant Frederick Noronha. To
> the likes of Admin Noronha
> > and his fellow cohorts like the Commie operator
> Gadgil, only Hindu malfeasance
> > is visible, and they will lie through their pustulated
> behinds at every
> > opportunity
> > provided by the fringe Hindu rightwing to portray the
> Hindu Right as the
> > biggest
> > danger since Nazi Germany.
* * *
In every way, the Goans of Bombay were part of the great melee that was this
metropolis, distinct perhaps in the way communities often are, holding on to
their own traditions but merging slowly nonetheless and forming the thin thread
of nationhood that would eventually become India. -- Selma Carvalho, in *Into
the Goan Diaspora Wilderness*. Available at Broadways Book Centre, Panjim [Ph
+91-9822488564] Price (in Goa only) Rs 295.
http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com/
* * *
