a simple anwer will be on 'humanitarian grounds'.
and a complex? one will be hindus are always harmless, humble and open-minded, - even though some of them go to extremes, after all they "originally belonged" to them hindus. :)
Seriously, who with a normal mind, would want to see innocent/ordinary people dying for a hidden agenda, or a business/financial plan of some people behind the scene?
>From: Saurav Pathak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: AssamNet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [Assam] anyone has an explanation?
>Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2003 12:14:17 -0500
>
>why should rss/vhp not like the iraq war? they are anti-muslim, and
>are a conservative lot, after all. and definitely not pacifist. how
>come their position is so close to that of pakistan's?
>
>saurav
>
>--------------
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63533-2003Mar31.html
>
>In New Delhi, Hindus Take A Dim View of America
>
>By John Lancaster
>Washington Post Foreign Service
>Tuesday, April 1, 2003; Page C01
>
>First in a series on how people around the world are perceiving the
>war in Iraq through their local media.
>
>NEW DELHI, March 31 -- On the flickering television set in the
>corner, a BBC announcer was describing how British troops in
>southern Iraq had seized a cache of Iraqi chemical-weapons gear.
>Images of protective suits, gas masks and antidote injectors filled
>the screen. A British officer then described the equipment as clear
>evidence that Iraq possesses chemical weapons, even if none has yet
>been found.
>
>But Jagat Jha, 37, offered another interpretation. "Maybe before
>bringing in the press they planted all these things," he said.
>
>Ajay Bharti, 40, suggested that the gear had indeed been stockpiled
>for use in a chemical attack -- by the United States and Britain.
>"Had there been a chemical attack on Iraq, then [Iraqis] would have
>used these things" to protect themselves, he said knowingly.
>
>Bharti and Jha were among a half-dozen Indians interviewed today at
>the media center of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) -- Hindi
>for National Volunteer Corps -- the right-wing Hindu nationalist
>group whose several offspring include India's ruling Bharatiya
>Janata Party.
>
>Several work full time for the group. Others are supporters -- a
>government bureaucrat (Bharti), a newspaper ad salesman (Jha) and a
>paper-products salesman -- who stopped by to chew over the latest
>news with Ram Madhav, a garrulous, Palm Pilot-toting former
>engineering student who serves as the RSS chief spokesman.
>
>Sitting around on plastic deck chairs in the cramped second-floor
>office, dressed for the most part in Western-style slacks and
>button-down shirts, they were unanimous in their condemnation of the
>war and especially of President Bush, whom they accused of
>fabricating evidence against Baghdad in pursuit of Middle East oil.
>
>Such views, while hardly unusual in the current climate, might seem
>surprising coming from the RSS. Founded in 1925, the group drew
>partial inspiration from the Fascist movements of prewar Europe and
>promotes the primacy of Hindu culture and religion in India. The
>organization's core ideology, called Hindutva, has often been blamed
>-- its members say unfairly -- for promoting discrimination and
>sometimes violence against India's minority Muslim population.
>
>At least one prominent figure associated with the movement has
>expressed support for the American-led invasion. In February, Pravin
>Togadia, general secretary of the World Hindu Council -- another
>offshoot of the RSS -- told an audience that it was in India's
>interest to support an attack on Iraq that, he said, could weaken
>the forces of radical Islam.
>
>But the RSS leadership quickly disavowed Togadia's remarks. And the
>government -- while fairly mild in its criticism of the Bush
>administration -- has said the matter should have been left to the
>U.N. Security Council.
>
>In that regard, the Hindutva movement is reflecting Indian public
>opinion, which is overwhelmingly hostile to the U.S. and British
>invasion. In a survey published this week, Outlook magazine found
>that 86 percent of Indians opposed the war and 69 percent regard
>President Bush as a "warmonger." On Sunday, more than 150,000 people
>marched against the invasion in Calcutta. Some burned effigies of
>Bush to shouts of "Down with America!"
>
>The people at the RSS media center today, with access to cable
>television and the Internet, were perhaps better informed about the
>conflict than the typical citizen in the street. But most began
>their day in the manner of countless Indians, with a newspaper,
>filtering its content through the prism of already well-formed
>views.
>
>Arun Arora, 35, scanned the war news in Punjab Kesari, a widely
>circulated Hindi paper whose front page was dominated by the banner
>headline "Hope of Reaching Baghdad Has Vanished and [coalition
>forces] Are Besieged by the Fear of Death." A second story was
>headlined "American Forces May Stop the Ground War for 30 to 40
>Days." Both stories were compiled from wire service reports.
>
>"What I conclude is that this aggression will be a second Vietnam
>for America," said Arora, who sells paper products. "It's
>unacceptable for the world, this effort by America to be the world's
>policeman."
>
>Jha, the newspaper ad salesman, was struck by an opinion column in
>another Hindi paper, Dainik Jagaran, that appeared under the
>headline "The Naked Display of American Bullying." The column
>compared Bush to "an uncontrolled and ruthless elephant" and
>suggested that he will soon turn his attention to "bringing down
>other governments and other heads of state around the world, too."
>
>"It's a good story," said Jha, a compact man with glasses and a
>mustache. "This is ominous for the future."
>
>Madhav, the spokesman, and Indira Sharma, an RSS political worker,
>said they were struck by a photograph in the Hindu, a major
>English-language daily, purporting to show a British soldier
>searching a small child for weapons in southern Iraq. "The PR battle
>is what America is losing badly," Madhav said.
>
>"This shows their frustration," Sharma said of the photograph. "They
>don't know what to do. They don't know which direction to go. That's
>why they are searching children."
>
>Several in the group saw evidence of American hypocrisy. They
>wondered why, if Saddam Hussein is so bad, the United States doesn't
>mete out the same punishment to Pakistani President Pervez
>Musharraf, whom they accuse of sponsoring Islamic militants in the
>disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
>
>Still, Jha, the ad salesman, said he could find no fault with the
>war coverage on Pakistan's government-run television news channel,
>which comes to him via cable. He was watching it this morning, he
>said, during a discussion of the suicide bombing that killed four
>U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint on Saturday. He said he agreed with
>the commentators, who described the attack as reasonable under the
>circumstances.
>
>"This is a war," he said. "This was not a terrorist attack."
>
>Someone switched on the television and tuned it to the BBC, which
>was showing footage of wounded children in the southern Iraqi city
>of Basra. Arora had no doubt about who was responsible. "Isn't this
>a human rights violation?" he asked, anger tinging his voice.
>"America has no right to kill civilians."
>
>A summary of news coverage of the war in Iraq and a roundup of
>international commentary is updated weekday mornings at
>www.washingtonpost.com
>
>© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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