Please permit me to place on record my deep sense of grudging admiration for the facile skills of Santosh Helekar to with impunity misread and misinterpret the contents of any posting which does not fit into his world view. Alas, were there to be no more people added to this categorisation Santosh could even seek a "PATENT" for his intellectual property rights!
The article was forwarded as a STATEMENT OF FACT,NOTHING MORE. That the killer professed the Christian faith, marshalled Hindus against Muslims, got the insignia of his Organisation made by a Muslim weaver in Varanasi, India are all factual incidents. That he wanted to align with Hindu right wing groups in India to eliminate Muslims from India was ofcourse a cause for serious concern to the polity of India which has secularism as its basic mooring. A number of people interested in misinterpreting secular give the word many meaning for their own ideological convenience, but the meaning of secular accepted by the Courts in India is secular to mean "equal respect for all religions". We thus have Muslims and Christians and people from all religious persuasions (including Jains!) in the Armed Forces of India fighting to protect the sovereignity and inegrity of India. Shining examples are not far to seek like Abdul Hamid. We have had Muslim Lt. Generals fighting insurgency in Kashmir like Lt. Gen Zaki (retd) who discharged his duties with great aplomb.We have the TIMES NOW expert on military and strategic affairs, Maroof Raza ( a former contemporary of mine in the Indian Army) incisively upholding the INDIAN POSITION IN KASHMIR AND OTHER POSTURES IN THE WORLD OF STRATEGIC AFFAIRS, AND OFCOURSE THERE CONTINUE TO SERVE A NUMBER OF MUSLIM AND CHRISTIAN OFFICERS AND ENLISTED MEN WHO SERVE WITH GREAT PRIDE AND HONOUR IN THE DEFENCE OF OUR GREAT COUNTRY INDIA,THAT IS BHARAT. What we mean to point out is that it is foolish to taint,segregate, "ghettoise' communities based on religion. Fortunately, for our great country ,our great founding fathers of the Constitution like Nehru(a brahmin by caste). Ambedkar( shudra by caste) Noorani (a Muslim), Jesuits ( Christians, yes a couple of them were on the Constitution making body) and a host of others had the wisdom ,foresight,goodwill and cerebral ability to make India as a country which would give equal respect to all religions. They resisted the temptation to prescribe a religion for the State, quite unlike Pakistan which did precribe Islam as the religion for Pakistan. HAD THEY NOT TO HAVE HAD THIS FORESIGHT,IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN PROBABLE THAT INDIA OUR GREAT COUNTRY WOULD HAVE SPLINTERED INTO MANY PARTS. Another outstanding legal and pragmatic personality was Mr. M. K Gandhi who agreed to the Partition of India. When we consider the physical partition of India, and position this template over the voting patterns of the participants in the Dominion status exercise, it would not take rocket science to understand the rationale of Partition. After all it was better to allow a disaffected population who subscribed to the irreconciliable views of Jinnah to go their way. We guess the wisdom of this bold,wise decision of Mr. M. K. Gandhi is better appreciated now, rather than allowing historical baggage to weigh down heavily on the soul and project it to cast a shadow on contemporary political affairs. In this connection three significant personalities come to mind Dr. Manmohan Singh, Mr. L. K Advani and General Musharraf--- all children of Partition. General Musharraf originally from Delhi, adjusted to his situation and rose to become President of Pakistan, Dr. Manmohan Singh, originally from Pakistan, has risen to be Prime Minister of India whilst Mr L. K Advani, originally from Pakistan, rose to become Dy.(NO. 2) Prime Minister of India. Overweening ambition however goes before a downfall. Wonder whether Dr.Manmohan Singh would also succumb. It appears that the right-wing apologists have conveniently forgotten to draw parallels between Breivik , Aseemanand,Dara Singh, Narendra Modi, Advani and others of similar persuasion. Like Breivik these individuals are undertrials. Some of them unfortunately roam freely quite unlike Breivik in Norway. It is not that we are for or against any religion whatsoever. It is the right-wing ideology in India akin to that of Hitler which we find distressing--- an ideology that could lead to the dismembering of our great country. LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC OF INDIA,THAT IS BHARAT! MAY IT NEVER BE DISMEMBERED. MAY ALL CITIZENS PROSPER. Gerry
