In my last post in this thread, I gave Marshall a chance to carry on a sober rational discussion without engaging in personal abuse, despite the fact that he started this thread with the sole purpose of showering childish insults on me. In particular, I pointed out his double standard and failure of logic, in respect of the political leanings of the right-wing religious organization, CSF and me. Based on my observation of his behavior, ever since he appeared on Goanet, I had asked the following question in particular:
QUESTION Why does he not apply to others the logic that he applies to CSF e.g. when he insinuates that any non-Christian who disagrees with his religio-political views and provides evidence against them, is a supporter or sympathizer of the Sangh Parivar, or worse a defender/justifier of rapes and killings of Christians? But in the post appended below, instead of answering this question and explaining his double standard, he has decided to continue his puerile insults against me, and has now started spreading more falsehoods about my past discussions in this forum. Moreover, he has foolishly compounded his double standard by making the following incredible statement: QUOTE But the ‘evidence’ you posted was one which supported the sangh parivar point of view while you strongly brushed aside contrary evidence as ‘partisan propaganda’. UNQUOTE .....Marshall Mendonza Leaving aside the fact that the above self-serving subjective interpretation is demonstrably false (I had merely provided some news reports and opinions by journalists in the mainstream media that contradicted his selected links from partisan political websites and blogs), here is what worsens the double standard: Why does evidence which supports the Congress point of view not make CSF a Congress supporter, whereas the so-called "evidence" which supports the Sangh Parivar point of view makes me a sympathizer of the Sangh Parivar and a defender of rapes and killings of Christians? Now, let me set the record straight regarding all the falsehoods that Marshall has spread in his post below. My answer to all the fantasized questions below is an emphatic "NO". QUOTE have you gever given cause for having been tagged? Did you or did you not justify / defend the violence against the Christians? Did you or did you not try to whitewash the crime by obfuscating the issue? UNQUOTE .......Marshall Mendonza The answer to the question: "Did you or did you not try your valiant best to discredit all reports and smear individuals who reported on the violence?", is the following: I provided reports in the mainstream media that contradicted their claims, if this was the case. I also pointed out that these reports were one-sided political propaganda from activist blogs and websites, whenever this was the case. I am absolutely confident that no objective person who reads any of my posts in the Goanet archives would level the above malicious allegations against me. I can also categorically state that all the claims made in the following quote are pure fantasies and fabrications: QUOTE You gave great credence to articles by Gurumurthy, an RSS ideologue but treated views from eminent personalities and journalists like Julio Ribeiro, George Menezes, Khushwant Singh, Vir Sanghvi, Vinod Mehta, Karan Thapar and sundry others of reputation with contempt. UNQUOTE ....Marshall Mendonza No objective person will be able to substantiate these false conclusions, from any of my posts in the Goanet archives. I have never viewed anybody who has not committed a crime with contempt. That is not my style. I don't know who Vinod Mehta is, and do not remember reading anything from him. I have never given "great credence" to any opinion article by anybody on a contentious political issue. I have only commented on whether it is balanced or one-sided. And if I am aware that someone is a political partisan, then I say so. Finally I have to say, I have never looked up to Marshall, ever. But I have never looked down upon him either, even though it is hard for me to respect a man who demonizes a private individual in a public forum by equating him to Narendra Modi, L.K. Advani, Jinnah, Goebbels, etc., and calls him a defender of rape and murder. I cannot imagine anybody who would respect such a person. Cheers, Santosh P.S. - BTW, My views about Indian politics, religion and secularism are exactly the same today as they were when I joined Goanet in 1995. Because of these views, there have always been people in this forum that have looked down upon me, as people still do in the real world on the basis of caste, race, sex, religion, politics and sexual orientation. Unlike others, I tend to draw strength from this fact. It motivates me to speak my mind more forcefully. I dislike sycophants. Sycophancy breeds complacency. And BTW, I disagreed with the autocratic demands of Anna Hazare, and stated so on Goanet. But I did not question his right to protest against the Indian Government and outside the houses of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. I also want to categorical state that I am a non-Christian. People who do not jump to premature prejudicial conclusions would realize why that means that I am unable to hide behind any religion. A little thought would tell them that a non-religious person like me is of course a non-Christian. They would know that I could also be a non-Hindu, a non-Muslim and a non-any other religion, which is also what I emphatically claim to be. Unfortunately, Marshall could not avoid falling into the trap of this prejudice. ----- Original Message ----- > From: Marshall Mendonza <[email protected]> > To: goanet <[email protected]> > Cc: > Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 10:38 AM > Subject: [Goanet] The CSF > > Santosh Helekar:**** > > I would therefore like to point out a logical fallacy in his claims > below. He claims that the right-wing religious organization > Catholic-Christian Secular Forum is not engaged in politics in support > of the Congress, merely because it speaks out against Anna Hazare and > the BJP. This might be true, even if one finds out that this religious > organization is distributing pamphlets describing Rahul Gandhi's > campaign in Uttar Pradesh, or even if one reads quotes like the > following in the news media:**** > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protect Goa's natural beauty Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
