"Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true." - Swami Vivekanand

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Satanic Forces!


Human Rights must be guaranteed in a democracy in order to be a meaningful democracy. Can world’s largest democracy protect the rights of it's citizens by turning blind eye to the present situation and future challenges?

The immediate concern is the sub-judice case by Google and Facebook before Delhi high Court. Actually it is an appeal against lower Court’s order. 

It involves showing of objectionable content on it's webpages. This content is created by perverse users registered on these sites. Some viewers complained against it and Court threatened these sites to shut them down in Bharat. Now against that order of lower Court, Google and Facebook have appealed to the Delhi HC.

Second such incident is the happenings at the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) in Rajasthan. The organizers had invited Salman Rushdie to participate in the JLF. He had agreed to come, and announcement to that effect was made. But some forces started opposing his arrival and protested largely. It was all due to meager chunk of people, who ignited all the community. Government suggested Rushdie to avoid coming to Bharat. Threat to his life was the reason. Who threatened his life? Who issued fatwas? Is our Government so weak that it cannot go ahead to protect a person for some days? Is it really so feeble to bow against some extremist blockheads?

4 authors went ahead and read out passages from ‘Satanic Verses’. Now the Rajasthan Govt is behind them. They left Jaipur abruptly in fear of arrests. So is the state of ‘freedom of speech and expression’.

Infact the Rule of Law in Bharat is sufficient to deal with both the situations. The users who posted and published objectionable content can be very well booked and punished under the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act, 2000. Such is the case with the extremists who say ‘we won’t allow such and such person to enter Bharat’. Are they Govt.? or Constitutional sanctioning authority? Will Govt depend upon their approval? Does it not show absence of sovereignty in the Govt? Thus it is high time now, Govt should deal in strong and stern manner with these non-State actors. Who undermine the sovereignty of Govt. Political will is needed. One cannot expect the ‘vote-hungry crowd’ to discharge the duties properly. ‘Vote-bank greed’ won’t allow you to act rationally.

Like Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasreen – Bangladeshi writer in exile – faces the same fate. Threats, endless feeling of insecurity, constant danger, frenzied mobs and satanic forces! What is their fault? To speak out against violation of Human Rights? They need to be protected and to be given the freedom to make people aware about the religious fanaticism and ideological extremism.

One can argue very well that the case of M F Hussain was similar to Mr. Rushdie or Shrimati Taslima Nasreen. Why then M F Hussain be condemned and Rushdie and Nasreen be protected and given free hand? This is very attractive argument to defend the case of Hussain. Also it seems valid prima-facie. But one needs to consider some basic difference between the two cases and then arrive at a conclusion.

M F Hussain was himself a Muslim. And he painted Hindu Gods and Goddesses in such a manner which hurt Hindu sentiments. He never painted any other religious figures than Hindu, in derogatory manner – to which some perverts regarded as an ‘art’. But did his ‘art’ prevent him from depicting other religious Gods but Hindu deities? Hence Hussain can be said to be a part of the fashionable cult whose only agenda seems to attack Hindu beliefs in Bharat. Such is not the case with Salman Rushdie and shrimati Taslima Nasreen. They themselves are born in Muslim families and they talk about the dangerous trends in Islam. They wish to eradicate the things detrimental to humanity at large. They need to be given the status of ‘reformationists’. Every religion except Islam has undergone the process of reformation at some or the other point of time. Many have undergone such process more than once. But Islam is an exception.

The thing which opposes reformation ceases to exist. Animals, plants, birds, insects, structures, machines, theories need evolution and reformation to maintain it's existence. Be it a lively or lifeless thing – natural or manmade – change and adaptation to changing environment is a must. How a religion can be exception to this eternal rule?

Thus Islam needs to come out of stagnation and accept new things. Salman Rushdie and shrimati Taslima Nasreen are the voices of billions of oppressed women and compelled children born in Islam. The voice of justified silent sufferers. It should not be suppressed. Humanity ought to give protection to such fearless and courageous ‘reformationists’ and contribute to their relentless efforts for the Herculean task.




17 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I see huge hypocrisy here. Painting of Hindu dieties by whomsoever cannot be termed derogatory jst because VHP has a problem with the depiction. VHP is backward enough that they would have a problem with Khajuraho also if it were not Hindu.

    When I read: "Such is the case with the extremists who say ‘we won’t allow such and such person to enter Bharat’. Are they Govt.? or Constitutional sanctioning authority? Will Govt depend upon their approval? Does it not show absence of sovereignty in the Govt? Thus it is high time now, Govt should deal in strong and stern manner with these non-State actors."
    .... then the first thing that comes to mind is antics of Shiv Sena in Bombay and Ram Sene in Karnataka. These are doing the same "anti-free speech" bullshit, yet RSS does not condemn them? Why this hypocrisy?

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    1. Ram Sene is being prosecuted by Govt. W.r.t Shiv Sena, ask the Congress Govt in State and Centre to show some guts, if they have, and prosecute Shiv Sena. (People even don't have guts on this forum to display their real names.) If Govt is not doing that, why blame RSS? Who cares whether RSS condemns something or not. As it is, RSS and Swayamsevaks believe more in action than in useless discussions.

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  3. Also, by the logic that Muslims can tell what is wrong with Islam but only Hindus can tell what others can or cannot paint, is itself a dangerous logic. By that same flawed logic, only criminals should be allowed to punish criminals? What will be the state of law & order then?

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  4. @Vikram: I agree with "Activ8", Vikram. Your logic is very flawed this time around, sounds very hypocritical, though I would say I would agree with most your "conclusions".

    Difference between Taslima and M.F. Hussain/Arundhati Roy is not about what religion they talk about, whose sentiments do they hurt, and also not what their own religion is -but rather to what extent they are being biased/prejudiced against/for something and legitimate reasons -if any- for being so -if being. MFH claimed he did those painting showing his "deep" respect to Hindu culture/religion and icons thereof, but never ever did he showcase nude painting of his mother, sister etc., he drew nude hitler, semi-nude brahmin, always a muslim with rich clothes -so evidently his are a highly prejudiced, blasphemic, derogatory artforms. Arundhati Roy too never ever talks about Indian military's role in development of Kashmir, bridges that they build, their share of community serving, helping people, mostly muslim families during hard times etc.! Whereas, likes of Taslima have been encouraging secularism and attack gender-religion based discriminating, fundamentalist verses of Quran, anti-social, discordant fatwa practices etc. -an opinion which definitely deserves hearing! They are asking for reformation of Islam, not necessarily destruction of faith. In Rushdie's case, he did attack the prophet and other characters in scriptures so lowly, "probably" (yes, only "probably") even worse than how MFH did with Hindu deities. As Activ8 says, VHP/Sanatan dharma people are very backward, very non-secular and ("sometimes" some factions of RSS are too, but thats digression, it happens with any organization -different people will have different agenda). These steadfast hindutvavaadi guys act like a cult, demand that everybody should go by their rules, follow their guruji (Sanatan dharma people esp.), basically become another sheep in the herd, not right to question, not right to opine! They stress madly on rituals,traditions to be followed, sometimes even drive fake fear of being the whole world anti-Hindu and stuff, are conspiracy theory lovers, anti progressive-NGOs, anti anti-superstition-NGOs (seriously, are we talking about Pakistan and ghairatmands here? They are Indian versions of the same brand!) So, these guys DO need to get bashing equally.

    Anyway, point remains as you rightly pointed out:
    "Are they Govt.? or Constitutional sanctioning authority? Will Govt depend upon their approval? Does it not show absence of sovereignty in the Govt? Thus it is high time now, Govt should deal in strong and stern manner with these non-State actors. Who undermine the sovereignty of Govt. Political will is needed. One cannot expect the ‘vote-hungry crowd’ to discharge the duties properly. ‘Vote-bank greed’ won’t allow you to act rationally."

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  5. @Activ8: I don't remember RSS "supporting" Shiv Sena, Ram sena on legitimate anti "freedom of speech" grounds. Let me know what case you are talking about, it might enlighten me. For the time being, I would say that statement was a long shot, nonetheless I agree with rest of both the posts! Vikram's conclusions do deserve hearing though, please think about it...

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  6. Religion shouldn't matter (when one writing critics or his /her views). That's agreed without any doubt. We have tradition of this, with opposition & conflicts. Right from Buddha and Mahavira to Rammohan Roy & Ambedkar. I also count here Jnyaneshwara, Tukaram Maharaj, Ramadas Swami & Vivekananda. These are people who challenged the contemporary traditions / customs and asked to reform them. I also want to underline that these people challenged the Vedic / Hindu customs, and successfully brought changes in it. The Hindus initially resisted the reformist, then accepted some, and now living it. That is the tradition we have as Hindu / Bharatiya.
    Same can be said for Christianity. They too had passed from Dark ages to bring all sorts of revolutions - Renaissance, Industrial, and Communication!! The religions have undergone changes and it should according to time & necessity. Afterall, they are way of life and not the only way of life.
    The Islam, too, has shown many such reformist movements. India is home for such Sufi tradition. But the Muslim community failed to accepts them as reform. Rather it became more & more perverse forms of Islams, the Wahabis / Ikhwans are good example of it. It attacked any kind of innovations in the way of life. Just imagine compulsion of burqa in hot humid weather. How anyone could accepts this!
    I am not concerned with VHP's point of opposition to MF Hussain, but his art clearly had some pervert links, especially to Hindus. Then why on earth, he found only hindu deities / women to draw portrait. Even when he condemned for that, he continued with them. Some have praised him to show courage to stand against the hindu 'fanatics'. Then where was that courage in respect to show such signs to depict his own religion, or came in support of Rashdi or Taslima. I find this as Hypocracy. Rest are reactions, may be hyper...
    Coming to Rashdi’s episode. As usual blown out of proportion by media. He is anyway coming to India. He has some 5-6 visits to India, holds PIO card. The UP election, and current crisis in Rajasthan govt forced the govt to take such ridiculous step. But it also reflects attitude of govt towards Muslim. Muslims become football in whole episode. 4.5 /9 / 18 % and Rashdi! It’s high time for them to come out from stagnation and actively take part in Indian march!

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  7. @sahdeV bhaiyya, you have correctly pointed out the hypocritical Arundhati Roy - such anti-nationals are the thorn in the side of India's progress. Wherever she has poked her nose, persons who were suffering already have suffered more and the only gain was Arundhati Roy's own publicity.

    Today Kashmir is what it is because of such anti-national elements again. Arundhati Roy is of the same league of persons as Geelani, Hurriyat leaders, etc. My question is - why are these folks allowed to function in name of democracy? Doesn't the freedom of speech extend only upto the point of national security?

    At same time I should point out that today's leadership in RSS has turned their face when idiots of Shiv Sena indulge in 'des-vibhajan'. (a) When Mumbai 26/11 happened, MNS & SS was no where to be seen; non-marathi commandos performed the operation, yet why doesn't RSS make strong statement against them on their Marathi-manoos drives or even give protection to all the non-Ghati log? Where is the nationalism? (b)When terrorist attacks happen on our country (Kashmir, Punjab, etc) why isn't RSS leadership forming Bajrang Dal cadres to go fight in Kashmir instead of just paying lip service & making speeches? If Shiv Sena have the balls to burn film posters & make hungama in Bombay, then why doesn't RSS hold them to task and invite them to publicly go fight in Kashmir where the real problem is? Is this not tacit support?

    Same with Ram Sene - it has clearly been pointed out that this organization is responsible for just plain 'gunda-gardi for cash'. I also have strong distaste for Valentine's Day and such aping of foreigners. But the people who're celebrating are doing so, are also sadly Indian only. They're not celebrating because they're 'becoming foreign'. They're doing so because of having nothing else to vent their pathetic existence on. That's why Indian movies cannot be realistic like Hollywood movies. Because the people want to escape from the reality not see more of it. These are all safety valves else population of 1.2billion in such a small land area would explode. Where is the voice of RSS in protecting these young fools against vada-pav politics and gunda-gardi? Is that not also unspoken support if they don't say anything against it? I personally know so many Bajrang Dal folks who celebrate Valentine's Day and Rose day more than educated upper class pseudo-secularist urban junta. So is this not hypocrisy? Why are we not educating our folk about our own culture instead of becoming insecure that young people celebrate other festivals? Hinduism is about accepting all and absorbing it.

    Commercialization of festivals (including traditional Indian ones) is because of companies trying to make a fast buck on all such things that people waste money on. But even they're Indian companies only. Even they are contributing to the economy (taxes, etc) so we're forced to allow this crass consumerism. Only people can learn on their own, not through forced vandalism.

    Now conveniently, Shiv Sena sees nothing wrong in making ten times more noise and polluting our sacred seas with Ganpati idols that are not made of bio-degradable or water-soluble materials. How is this okay? It is not even a traditional Hindu festival - it only started by Bal G Tilak as a way to gather masses against British Raj laws that forbade public assembly. Now that the purpose of overthrowing British is complete, why have we not reformed? Then are we not complicit in anti-freedom of speech that somehow only what are friends do is okay but not those who are Indian, but not having learnt the country's culture are doing wrong?

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  8. @Abhishek - I agree with your post.

    I joined RSS for the philosophies of Hegdewar & Golwalkar, which said that no matter which religion, if a person accepts this land (bharatvarsh) as his pitrbhoomi and punyabhoomi, then he is Indian. This was true nationalism - country before all else.

    But I think most RSS members will also agree that today's leadership in Delhi is absolutely useless and in dire need of reform. That is why RSS doesn't have the power it once had of being the final arbiter in nationalist agenda. Vikram has written a good post in general, but we will gain numbers only if hypocrisy is totally eliminated from RSS. There is an old saying - 'let him who is without sin, cast the first stone' similar to 'pot shouldn't call kettle black'.

    The reason muslims (and even Christians and Buddhists, tribals & dalits) in India are stagnating is because in part Sangh Parivar has made it 'us versus them' issue instead of trying to make them see themselves as Hindu. Hinduism is not a religion, it is a way of life. this must be communicated as a core RSS belief. Hindutva is nationalism for Hindustan not a sharia-Islam type policy of theological state. You may be Vaishnav or Shaivik or Vedic or Jain or Buddhist or even Muslim, but if you're born in the land east of Sindhu and south of Himalayas, then you're by definition Hindu. There are Saudi muslims, Irani muslims, Jordanian muslims, etc. - all of whom hate each other and put 'des' before 'qom'. There is no reason that Hindustani muslims cannot see themselves as Hindu-Muslim except if they're alienated or else like Congress party tactics are played for votebank.

    Christian catholics follow pope, yet France and Italy and Germany and Spain, etc. have fought countless wars with each other. Personally I would prefer if Indian muslims considered Delhi & Agra above Mecca & Medina, but even if they don't, there is no reason to doubt their patriotic credentials. RSS should and can co-opt them - just one example is by Bollywood muslims as our own role model Hindu-Muslims. Instead of opposing Salman Khan from making Ramayan, why doesn't RSS remove objection? He has a Hindu mother, considers himself Hindu-Muslim, celbrates our festivals, has alcohol and keeps dogs - in what way is he muslim? Even if he is, so what? It is a perfect example of how we can co-opt the community and make it Hindu (absorb) rather than try to show differences. Same with multiple inter-religious marriages of Bollywood. This is just an example, from a well known topic, but can be applied in other fields also. These guys are not thinking whether they're Vashnav or Muslim while making movies. Kalam was not thinking he was muslim while designing missiles, just as Bhagat Singh wasn't thinking he's Sikh while laying down life for India. So these kind of efforts are what will integrate the country more than allowing a chut like Rushdie to speak at some festival, wasting taxpayer money for his protection and then giving Congress an agenda to play the vote card

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  9. @Activ8

    When 26/11 happened The commandos came later, the Mumbai police was the first one to face the terrorist. Have you forgotten the bravery of Tukaram Ombale? At that time all your North Indian officers in Mumbai police remained in head quarters (Rakesh Maria et al) while Marathi foot soldiers sacrificed their lives. And the NSG commandos have all kinds of people in it. Please do not say that Non Marathi commandos saved Mumbai, it is the Central Govt which kept the NSG commandos center in Delhi and caused the delay to reach the city.

    And you want to know where was SS/MNS during 26/11..i will only give one example:
    Sena shakhapramukh of Colaba Mr Shasikant Surve did exceptional help to the NSG commandos during Chabad house operation. The NSG has given him certificate of appreciation for this, search google you can verify this. MNS was also doing errands of helping people, doing blood donations, running ambulances. I would like to ask the question, where were the North Indian politicians, who always lay claim on Mumbai,hiding?

    ------
    Ameya,

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  11. This is ridiculous!! I strongly condemn these phrases - 'Shivsena indulge in desh-vibhajan' ; 'At that time all your North Indian officers in Mumbai police remained in head quarters (Rakesh Maria et al) while Marathi foot soldiers sacrificed their lives.' What is these nonsense...
    Ameyji, I am not then THE marathi you are talking about...
    Active8 ji, please get clear your views about Sena or other such organisation. And please have some informed criticism...
    The 26/11 was attack on India, not on marathi / or non-marathi. Tukaram Obaliji didn't gave his life for marathi, he gave his life for Bharat. Rakesh Maria didn't remain in HQ because he is non-marathi. This is common sense, the control room required senior fellow at such crisis hour.
    First have some study on 26/11 attack and on response and keep your so called 'marathi' 'non-marathi' pride out of this...
    @Vikram ji - If possible please remove all these ridiculous thread of replies.. not good at your blog...

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    1. @Abhishek

      I am only replying to ridiculous posts by this person Active8. He even uses this word "Ghati". Please condemn him first...

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  12. MF Hussain was wrong not because he was a Muslim. But because he attacked Hindu sentiments by drawing inappropriate portraits of Hindu Gods/Goddesses. And I personally was very upset by his portraits. But as we say, "मरणांतनि वैराणि". W.r.t. Rushdie and Nasreen, I really don't care directly. They are reformists within Muslims. They are trying or they claim they are trying to rectify some things in Islam. Now that indirectly matters to me, because a reformist Muslim is supposed to be more tolerable and more easy to live with in this country. This has nothing to do with right of freedom of speech or expression. The main focus of this article is to expose Govt's inconsistent handling of such issues. When Hussain was threatened, Govt took responsibility to protect him and offered him red carpet. Now when Rushdie is being threatened, why the Govt not take the same stand?

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