Dear Jason: Thanks to Cecil, I got this opportunity to read your response to my post.I am responding because unlike a few here on goanet, you do appear sincere and deserve a well thought response.
let me recapitulate the gist of my reaction in short random points: You said: "On the contrary, what you seem to be suggesting is that what does not gel with YOUR opinion should really not be aired on public fora. hmmm...." That is not what i said or suggested,In fact I am all for airing opinions however divergent they may be. I only expect that everyone else be given the same privelege. In india it is the duty of the courts to decide what is free speech or not.however flawed the legal process may be.Till the court decides that FACT is violating its right to free speech.let us allow it this indulgence. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- You said: "in Goa, where the Muslim is not a problem, the threat to upper-caste Hindu nationalist interests were the Catholic elite, and this is what is attacked when the opportunity presents itself. It has become fashionable to blame everything on "upper castes" isnt it? Much like the muslims tend to blame the jews for everything. Has it ever occured to you that narendra modi, vinay katiyar, kalyan singh uma bharti,are all not upper caste? many of the VHP Bajrang dal leaders are also non upper caste. Why do the educated catholic elite ( at least some of them) in goa particularly in panaji support Parrikar? In Pakistan there are no "upper caste" hindus or RSS.Yet why are muslims slaughtering each others there? well if its not the RSS then its america, the "big satan" isnt it? there is always a convenient "other" to blame. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You said: "But once again Bhandare baab, if only you had visited and then opted to defend them i would have had more respect." I also mentioned that I do not agree with everything FACt or HJS says or what Francois Gautier writes. I merely tried to expose the different standards applied to different people. Your implication that I am a fascist is mere conjecture, probably arising out of some prejudice. There is a obvious difference in supporting what they say and supporting their right to say it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You also said:" Once more, Bhandare presumes that the meeting was peaceful, without visiting it. Further, violence need not necessarily be physical harm. It can be words and daily acts as well" Again you are "presuming" what I "presumed" Presumptions and assumptions apart, I did not read any news report that there was physical violenece at any of the FACT exhibitions anywhere in the country Let me digress and give you an example. The RC Church and the Pope routinely villifies sexual minorities and abortion rights groups.Much of the violence and prejudice against gays is a direct result of such vile propagandaby the church. Do you hold the Pope and the RC Church to the same high standards of liberalism and tolerance? Sects like the Believers essentially proclaim the "good news" by denigrating other religions and even other christian denominations themselves. Does that fall under the category of "hate speech"? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ You say"Bhandare makes a reference to the Godhra train fire incident and blames Muslims for it. And yet, despite this rumour that allowed for many more Muslims to be killed, it has still not yet been established who in fact set fire the train" Well to be honest it has not even been established who destroyed the WTC in NYC, or if man really landed on the moon. In fact, according to the Flat earth Society, the earth is indeed flat.A large majority of the muslim world still blame Bush and the israeli mossad for the WTC disaster. Once again,I am not a arsonist, so i am unaware of the physics of starting a fire in a locked train compartment.I believe that a mob of muslims torched the train. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Finally you say"all Hindutvawadis inherently communal (and violent). YES!" On one hand you claim that one can not blame the entire group for the misdeeds of a few. yet paradoxically, you do the same when it suits you. By your logic is it fair to assume that the entire RC Church is a paedophile organization because of the way in which it refuses to act against its errant members? True, there are RSS members who are violent,and they must be punished according to law. Assuming that roughly 50% of indian adults vote and around 30% of those voted for the BJP, and further assuming that maybe half of those are hindutvawadis, that would make it 50 million violent fundamentalists. scary,isnt it? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMENTS: I said" Francois gautier , a Frenchman is a journalist of infinitely more calibre than Jason." In retrospect that was an unnecessary comment, i am in no position to comment on the calibre of both of you. I agree that many indians seek some sort of legitimacy for their beliefs because a "firangi" is saying the same thing. Once again gautier's writings and comments are irrelvant to this discussion IMHO. I do not know what your agenda is, but if you really want to find out the truth you will have to answer a lot of questions. Many of your beliefs may be proven false, and you will have to have the courage to accept that. Many people here on Goanet have a policy of "shoot and scoot" I hope you are different from them! regards sincerely, Bhandare __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com