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Visit http://www.garcabranca.com for details/booking/confirmation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Your arguments are filled with misleading statements and untruths. That's why I am concerned about the fact that you hide behind a pseudonym while spreading all this propaganda. On 03/08/06, Vivek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I proved to you that the broken peace report has one > LIE in it regarding the Priol "grenade" blast. You didn't prove anything. There is no reference to Priol. There is a reference to Mardol. QUOTE The attacks on mosques have been violent including setting on fire a mosque at Porvorim during the Ramzan month and burning of the pages of the Quoran some three years back; a hand grenade was thrown at the mosque in Mardol, Ponda and the floor mats were set on fire; and Muslims were made to abandon a mosque in Sanquelim. Our team was not able to investigate into all these incidents in our brief visit but we have documented some incidents of discrimination and violence. UNQUOTE While you could quibble over what the police in BJP-ruled Goa treated this incident as, would you disagree with the overall message of the text above? As I have posted earlier, the hate-campaign against Muslims in Goa probably involves even more incidents than recorded by the fact-finding committee lead by Nandita Haksar. > The report carries the following malicious > insinuations > 1. that Sunaparant and sandesh prabhudesai is > communal because it provides column space to velingkar That's not what it said. The exact quote is below: OPENQUOTE According to Ramesh Gauns, schoolteacher and long term fighter for secular values, the Hindutva lobby has organized a base in both the pro-Marathi and pro-Konkani supporters. Subhash Velingker a spokesman for Marathi always delivers his speeches in Konkani. Moreover, he has a regular column in the only Konkani daily, Sonaprant. Unfortunately, the editor of Sonaprant claims he is both secular and leftist. But many Goans, including Ramnath G Naik, and Dr Pratap Naik, S. J.have expressed their concern about the growing communalization of their society because of the language issue have expressed their anger at the Editor for publishing the vicious anti-Catholic and anti-Muslim articles by Subhas Verlingker. Father Pratap Naik, a linguist and in charge of the Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr wrote to Ms Sonia Gandhi informing her that the Sonaprant which is owned by Dattaraj Salgaoncar, mine owner and staunch Congress supporter, was sowing seeds of communalism and linked it to the violence in Sanvordem- Curchorem. We are enclosing his letter as Annexure A.... CLOSEQUOTE > 2. all cross vandalizations as well as mosque > desecrations have been carried out by Sangh parivar > sympathisers/activists. Here is what I found the report to say. The report does not state which "Vivek" says it states above.It merely mentions the facts. Incidentally, the cross vandalisations mentioned below refer to a period when the Congress ruled Goa (which could also be taken as an indictment of the Congress for not being able to act effectively on this front): OPENQUOTE: The Sangh Parivar supplements its ideological work with vandalizing historical monuments in the name of cultural nationalism. They attacked the festival organized by the Goa Heritage Action Group for promoting Portuguese culture. They called the organizers Pakhleancheput ... They vandalized the Tonca memorial put up to commemorate the construction of a road from Panjim to Dona Paula. The Hindutva goons tried to remove the inscriptions. There have been increasing incidents of vandalization of Catholic crosses.C B Vaz of Assolna has calculated that with the vandalization of the cross at Combo, Margao the number of catholic places of worship that are being damaged, robbed and vandalized has arisen to 14 since February 2005. CLOSEQUOTE > The above assertions are not only malafide and highly > biased but are also unproven in any established court > of law. You are building 'men of straw' as arguments, misquoting the report, and then demolishing those arguments! Like criminal-politicians, the communal-lobby has also often argued that "nothing has been proven in a couirt of law". This is a fact-finding mission. It's job is to present the facts, as it sees it and to the best of its ability, to the citizen and the people. In my view, it did a rather useful job. Just a few lacunae in the report cannot be used as an excuse to discredit it. I think Nandita Haksar and team have done well in highlighting the way Goa's communal peace was being wreaked by vested interests. This is precisely what "Vivek" is afraid about; that the truth would be widely know. He would like to create a smokescreen of confusion over it. I would urge every Goanetter to read this document. Mail me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a copy if you need it! > if you remember a huge hue and cry was raised > regarding the bomb explosions in a vasco church and > all the righteous noises about the RSS and Jp being > comunal were made, but it was proven to be the handi > work of some non goan muslims associate with the SIMI. This is a much-more complex issue than you make it out to be. See the analysis of Yoginder Sikand, below ( http://www.truthindia.com/page58.html ): OPENQUOTE Between May and July 2000, a series of bombs went off at twelve places of worship in different towns in the south Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa. Most of these were churches, but a Hindu temple and a mosque were also targeted and were badly damaged. Anti-Christian hate literature, purported to have been issued by Hindu chauvinist groups, was found at the site of many of the blasts. Fingers of suspicion were initially pointed at Hindu groups, who have, in recent years, been involved in violent attacks on Christians and Christian-owned properties in large parts of India. However, in July 2000, the police and Union Home Ministry sources claimed to have discovered evidence of a hitherto little-known Muslim group, the Deendar Anjuman, in masterminding the blasts, accusing it of seeking to provoke further hostility between Hindus and Christians. The Indian press gave much publicity to these reports, indeed much more so than it had to confirmed evidence of earlier Hindu attacks on Christian churches and priests. The manner of reporting about the alleged role of the Deendar Anjuman in the incidents strongly suggested that the events were sought to be given the image of a Muslim-Christian confrontation or as yet another expression and evidence of Muslim 'terrorism' and Islamic 'fundamentalism'. Further, the distinct impression was sought to be created that Hindu militant groups, whose role in previous attacks on Christians in India had been clearly proven, had been all along wrongly blamed, and that behind much of the current anti-Christian wave in India was a hidden 'Islamic' or 'Pakistani' hand. For right-wing Hindu organisations, the attacks came as a blessing in disguise, which they sought to use to absolve themselves of accusations of violent anti-Christian activity in order to salvage their sagging public image, which had attracted sharp criticism at home and abroad. CLOSEQUOTE And, The Hindu's report from Nov 2004: OPENQUOTE: Out of the 14 criminal cases booked against the Deendar Anjuman activists following blasts at religious places in Medak, Ongole, Guntur, Krishna and Hyderabad, 11 ended up in acquittal. The prosecution succeeded in proving charges of criminal conspiracy against 39. CLOSEQUOTE http://www.thehindu.com/2004/11/23/stories/2004112318160500.htm Interesting to see the statements made by Police in Goa at that time: " "It proves that our suspicion about the ISI involvement in the bomb blasts in churches in Goa, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh is not wrong", says Karnal Singh, the state DIG, though he flatly refuses to disclose any information in this regard. " http://www.goanews.com/12jul002.htm > No one thought it fit to apologise to the sangh > parivar for having blamed them needlessly. Apologise? > Further more i raised some issues regarding the > Solapur riots report. You have conveniently chosen > not to reply to any of those issues. This is really a red-herring meant to deflect from the entire issue. FN -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 4000+ copylefted photos to share from Goa http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/ _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org