--- On Mon, 18/5/09, ss <cybers...@gmail.com> wrote:
> From: ss <cybers...@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [silk] Why have Indian exit polls been so off lately?
> To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
> Date: Monday, 18 May, 2009, 7:30 AM
> On Monday 18 May 2009 3:21:13 am
> Badri Natarajan wrote:
> > Shiv, can you tell us what you think of Modi?
>
> Badri - I don't think about Modi at all. All my "thoughts"
> about Modi are
> based around what others say about him. But when I listen
> to others I have
> the option of giving equal weightage to two or more sides
> of a story. When
> you look at Modi through this sort of lens the "jury is
> out" about Modi, if
> you like.
>
> Modi's initial rise to national prominence was based around
> the riots. But he
> seems to have been an effective administrator after that -
> so clearly there
> are at least two sides. He is the darling boy of one side
> and the Hitler of
> another side.
>
> When only one side of a story is given a lot of prominence
> it smacks of a
> political agenda that is utilizing the "saleability" of
> horror to smear
> someone and obfuscate issues while debate is scotched.
>
> In India the people who like to describe themselves as
> "secular" have been
> given a bomb proof shelter to hide their own mistakes by
> events such as the
> Ahmedabad riots and that event is being milked to the
> fullest extent without
> any hint of introspection about what relationship the state
> of india has
> developed with people of different faiths under the guise
> of secularism.
>
> My "torn shirt - open fly" analogy works very well here.
> The so
> called "secular parties" have a gala time dissing the open
> fly of Modi's
> Hindutva while all discussion of their own torn shirt is
> suppressed. This is
> a national mistake. In that sense the "Modi" issue is a
> veil behind which
> other issues are cheerfully and mindlessly suppressed in
> public debate.
>
> shiv
Shiv,
I hate late night bus journeys at my age, and a certain degree of acidity in my
views may be attributed to that, if it helps.
I was depressed to read your two sides business; the aiding and encouragement
of rioting and assault and battery by a constitutionally sworn authority does
not balance out against his ability to run trains on time. Not in the 40s, not
now, not ever. No amount of administrative efficiency can excuse a betrayal of
the constitution, or a betrayal of innocent victims of mob outrage, or a
cynical stone-wall defence against investigation.
I like to describe myself as secular. Please tell me what use I have made of
the bomb-proof shelter that is the opportunity to hide my own mistakes. This is
a very bad way of expressing your indignation about political parties that
sport this label to appeal to the gullible. It cannot apply, the way you have
applied it, to individuals. It cannot apply as a catch-all defence.
When you wish to have people be accurate in their use of descriptions and their
use of words, there is a duty that you have to practise what you preach.
Regarding your torn shirt/open fly analogy, surely you are aware that a
significant section of people, myself included, condemn in the strongest terms
the hypocrisy, the cant of the Congress party, and their ineffable cheek in
permitting Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar to go about free, and even give them
party tickets. I put to you that as a fierce opponent of both types of ethnic
massacre, there is nothing hypocritical in my condemnation of the Gujarat
massacres, and that you can use this only against a specific party and specific
individuals from that party and from elsewhere who have actually demonstrated
the hypocrisy that you have rightly pilloried.
The point? Not everybody falls within your classification, and it does not seem
logical to use arguments which depend on these categories as universal
categories.
Now it would be interesting for you to state those other issues which are being
suppressed under the Modi smoke-screen. Please go ahead and list them, and see
how secularism or its absence affects those issues. Or our responses to those
issues.
IG
Explore your hobbies and interests. Go to
http://in.promos.yahoo.com/groups/
