Shiv,

Some clarifications.

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 12:44 AM, ss <[email protected]> wrote:
> In the original post that defended Modi's actions I do not recall Bharat
> Shetty describing himself as either "Hindu", or "Hindutva" or
> even "Hindutvabadi" (Hindutva-baddie" :D )
Neither did I tell, what leanings I know people have, nor I used any
other terminologies which I felt was irrelevant here. But was still
accused of using the words that extreme Hindus use. Despite my strong
refusal to be branded into two sides, and offering examples of what
exactly will be pseduo-secularism, some people's comments made me sad
in a way. I must confess that at one point I did look into mirror and
asked myself was I a murderer, endorser of a Genocide ? Most people on
this list might view this as outpouring of emotions. But I'm sure
anyone who would be accused of defending a murderer would feel what
I've felt.

> If you would like to retrace the sequence of events, Bharat Shetty defended
> Modi, but, as I stated did not identify himself as either "Hindu",
> or "Hindutva" or even "Hindutvabadi"
Nope, I did not defend Modi. I spoke from development plank only. I
understand that he has allegations on him and for which he surely owes
an explanation sometime in the future. I would like to repeatedly tell
I offered a viewpoint why Zainab's father might have thought high of
Modi from development plank. Please. Shiv, in a way you should see
that my thoughts on Modi are based on what most people do and what
I've read about him. It might have appeared defense of Modi, but the
intent was not to. I feel if I had omitted that Hindutva card
statement, all this would not have been written, with people
intentionally or unintentionally lying traps to which they got sucked
and so on. I will mostly keep that in mind next time.

> You need to ask yourself if you believe this to be true. No harm if you do
> believe it to be true. It is a viewpoint. But recall that when all
> Hindutvadis can be dubbed as apologists or representatives of murderers, the
> same argument can be conveniently applied to other people in other contexts
> to reach equally spurious conclusions.
This was what I wanted the people to realize. And I'm looking for the
day all this stops, and the division of Indian society as Majority and
Minority should stop. Most of the people here will be surprised to
hear, and probably cannot take easily that it is the BJP manifesto
which has mentioned this for first time that they do not support the
concept of majority/minority segregation in India. Now, please don't
ask me do you really think so that the BJP is a party committed to
this etc. That time will explain.

> Why not allow all viewpoints to be aired?
Exactly. And, I never wanted to be drawn into the riots perspective
but only the developmental plank, but was sucked into explaining
everything and offering counter viewpoints, which some people took as
if I was defending genocides, murders etc. As Divya said earlier,
Congress is just the lesser evil now, but that doesn't mean they
should not owe explanations for their shoddy mismanagement of the
country all these fifty years, corruption, poverty etc.

Regards,
-- Bharat | http://twitter.com/shettyb

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