Without getting into this debate between Miguel and Sandesh, some points do need to be made.
Sandesh's secular credentials are undoubted, his track record speaks for itself, and all who know him would agree with this. That said, giving a regular weekly column to Subhash Velingkar is scandalous. Why is this done? > But my intention, while taking over as Sunaparant editor in > January 2003, was to create a platform for all the ideologies and > thoughts, > no matter whether i personally believe in it or not. Now Osama bin Laden need not confine his thoughts to the internet, maybe Lashkar-e-Toiba can print their ideological outpouring here? OK, if that's an extreme example, there are plenty of analogies. Is there a single respectable national newspaper that gives a regular column to Praveen Togadia or Ashok Singhal or their likes, or to a Muslim/Christian fundamentalist? > Till date, we have not > published any article by Velingkar, which could go against the press > ethics. This is a normal practice followed even by leading national > dailies. Publishing such articles does not make the newspaper > communal. Yes, they do cover their speeches and remarks, that is the job of the press, but giving a weekly column to a RSS ideologue to hold forth with his poison is over the limit. Let them write in their party/organisational mouthpieces like Organiser. Why give them respectability outside these organs. > My intention behind asking Mr Velingkar to write for us that people > also > know the RSS viewpoint on several issues. The RSS is a known anti-national body, which has repeatedly stated that it does not have any respect for the Indian constitution, which has enshrined India as a 'secular, democratic, socialist republic'. The RSS on the other hand is on a Hindu Rashtra trip. Its best-known ideologue, Golwalkar (whose centenary the RSS is celebrating with great fanfare this year), has stated (I paraphrase): Minorities living in India have to accept the Hindu way of life, or else live in this country as second- class citizens, without even basic rights. These are the people you want to give a weekly column to? Get real, Sandesh. Or should we look forward to reading a regular weekly column by Ayman Al-Zawahiri and another by Pat Robertson in Sunaparant -- so as to have what you describe as a 'healthy debate'?
