Recent Discussions

Something we have got to do

28th Jan 1999      Srinath Srinivasa @usa.net

> 
> Hi,
> 
> This mail comes to you to ask you to lend your voice to that of  sanity,to
> speak up against the madness and calculated political  gambling that is
> happening in the name of patriotism and nationalism. This is to protest
> against the way the thugs and hooligans of the Shiv  Sena are holding this
> country to ransom; by committing acts of vandalism  against anything that
> does not fit in with their bigoted and distorted  world-view - whether a
> book, a film, hockey and cricket tours or any  individuals courageous
> enough to stand up and call their bluff.
> 
> This mail is an attempt to make our voice heard -  we who have been
> angered and saddened at the TV and press reports, but feel powerless  and
> impotent. This is our chance to stand up and be counted, to show  that we
> are not the spineless pushovers that the Sena and its followers take us
> to be. The idea of this exercise is to sign a common letter of  protest,
> and send it to the editors of the publications listed below, to  prove
> conclusively that these hooligans do not speak for us, that they  do not
> speak for anything but their own warped agendas.
> 
> Please read the letter at the bottom of this mail - if you agree with  the
> sentiments expressed  in it, please follow the instructions given  below
> for sending it - if you do not agree, please delete it immediately  from
> your mailbox. You have our sincere, collective apologies for  wasting your
> time with junk mail.
> 
> Instructions:
> 1. Please read the letter that follows beneath the dotted lines.
> 2. If you disagree with the sentiments expressed in the letter, we
>    apologize once again - please delete this mail.
> 3. If you agree with the gist of the letter, here's what to do:
> 
> Forward this mail, from the point above beginning "Hi,..." to as many
> Indians as you know, by e-mail. Once you have completed this action,
> type your name in the space between the brackets at the bottom of this
> mail, and send the part of the mail that follows beneath the dotted
> lines, to the following e-mail addresses:
> 
> >[email protected]
> >[email protected]
> >[email protected]
> >[email protected]
> >[email protected]
> >[email protected]
> >[email protected]
> >[email protected]
> ...............................................................................
> >Dear Editor,
> >
> >I am an Indian. I love my country and the traditions of tolerance,
> forbearance and humane values that it stands for.  Today, I am ashamed and
> angry at the actions and statements of a certain  group of people, who
> clothe them in the garb of patriotism and  nationalism. I speak of the
> Shiv Sena and their supporters - who have  willy-nilly appointed
> themselves our moral and national guardians.  Uncultured, untutored in the
> practice or democracy or civility,  strangers to the meaning of the word
> patriotism, these thuggish, loutish  people are the worst spokespersons my
> country could have hoped for. I am  aghast at the way my country and
> society has been passively watching the  flagrant violation and
> desecration of all the values my country stands  for. Contempt for the law
> and its institutions, targeting specific  communities with violent acts of
> communal and parochial barbarism,  repressions against those who raise
> their voice in a civilized fashion   the Sena has imposed their own
> peculiar code of morals on Bombay, and  are trying it on the entire
> country.  I wonder at the kind of morality that casts slurs on the
> "morals" of women who wear Western clothing in public, but does not feel
> outraged  when gangland killings erupt on the streets of Bombay, or
> travellers  lose life and limb on the suburban trains; what kind of
> "morality" sees  a danger to our nation in the lyrics of rock songs, but
> none in the  culture of violence, intolerance nepotism and corruption that
> it fosters  and breeds? As an Indian, born into the independent, secular,
> democratic  Republic of India, I hang my head in shame.
> 
> A person who has not been elected by due process of law, to any public
> post in this country, commands an army of rabble, and is the de facto
> ruler of Maharashtra. He incites pograms and riots, parading as a
> patriot, secure in the knowledge that the machinery of the state and the
> police are thoroughly perverted and corrupted to his cause. His whims,
> prejudices and bigotries are dressed up as  nationalism, and I am asked
> to subscribe to them in the name of nationalism.   I refuse to condone the
> violence and mayhem in the name of "protecting"  me from films that offend
> the narrow world-view of the Sena and its  leader - I am mature enough to
> not need their dubious judgements.  I refuse to believe the Sena or their
> minions should be able to dictate  who my country's sportsmen should play
> in hockey, cricket or any sport  at all. I refuse to stomach the insult to
> my country's sporting pride as  thugs and vandals smash the trophies that
> our country's teams battled to  win on the cricket field.  I refuse to
> concede that I need to be told what patriotism is, from a  bunch of
> unprincipled hooligans. I refuse to let my silence be taken  for assent,
> my patience taken for cowardice and my voice thought  inconsequential.
> This is my voice, and this I what I have to say.
> 
> My name is [M. Swaroop Bhojani]
>            [Srinath S] 

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