I put it to you that IG didn’t particularly intend this as a laundry list of
megalomaniac people who made chariots and elephants run on time.
And that you are missing and/or skating around his point again.
srs
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of ss
Sent: Wednesday, 20 May 2009 9:05 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [silk] Why have Indian exit polls been so off lately?
On Tuesday 19 May 2009 2:40:16 pm Bonobashi wrote:
> * My objection to Modi was nowhere connected to Hindutvabadi; it was
> connected to our usual, may I say facile, ability to gloss over breaches of
> the rule of law,
>
> * It is the same objection that I have to an historical figure, Husain
> Shahed Suhrawardy, for exactly the same reasons, except that Modi happens
> to be Hindu, and Suhrawardy was Muslim.
>
> * It is the same objection that I have to Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and the
> unlamented swine H. K. L. Bhagat.
>
> * It is the same objection that I have to the Muslim crowds that
> demonstrated to numbers in Calcutta, seeking the expulsion of the hapless
> Taslima Nasreen. Being a hopeless and pedestrian writer doesn't warrant
> such brutal measures, nor such a flagrant breach of the rule of law.
>
> So which part of Hindutva, or which Hindutvabadi was I guilty of hauling up
> before my kangaroo court?
IG I cannot but agree with your view of the names you have posted above.
But please take another look at the names you have posted. Your list of people
who have benefited from the " facile ability to gloss over breaches of the
rule of law," does not extend to names earlier than the 20th century.
Now what if you were to extend that list back by say 5000 years.
On the face of it this may sound like a ridiculous exercise. After all,
credible records of the actions tyrants and genocidal maniacs though all
those centuries do not exist. But records do exist of a few of them. And many
of them still benefit from the "facile ability to gloss over breaches of
the rule of law" and retain reputations they do not deserve centuries after
their death
I put it to you that "pseudosecularism" is the ability to recognise tyranny
and genocide after a cutoff date (such as circa 1900) and the facile ability
to gloss over the tyranny of a long list of tyrants before that date.
Would you be guilty of that perhaps?
shiv
