Deshmukh
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Petrol Pumpers and Land Grabbers
«on:
08/27/02 at 06:19:13 » |
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Don't accuse them they will say "Everybody does it, yaar.”
Ask them about the petrol pumps and they’ll bob and they’ll weave but finally they will ask truculently, “What about Satish Sharma, then? He did it too.” Ask them about all the land that assorted chaddiwallahs have stolen and they’ll say: “How about the land allotted to Congress foundations?” Push them on Gujarat, and they’ll respond, “But there were riots in Gujarat even when the Congress was in power.”
In essence, their defence is: the Congress did it. So why can’t we?
Which is, of course, a bit rich coming from the so-called ‘party with a difference’.
This party has always been distinguished by its utter and complete self-righteousness, its pompous, holier-than-thou manner, its assumption that it is somehow morally superior to everybody else and that, therefore, anybody who opposes it must be a crook, anti-national or anti-Hindu.
You can see it in the way their spokesmen handle the Gujarat issue: not one shred of compassion for the victims, not one flicker of sympathy for people who’ve seen their mothers murdered and their daughters raped before their eyes — only a strictly legalistic defence of Modi as he sniffs around for the whiff of electoral victory in the fires of the crematoriums.
You can see it in the way in which they react to any criticism. They are above reproach, so the critics must be motivated. Tehelka is an ISI plot. The petrol pumps exposé was the work of a corporate house. Alex Perry and Time magazine were manipulated by (if not actually in the pay of) the CIA.
From this basic premise, follow the consequences. Tehelka should be persecuted, its journalists arrested. Intelligence agencies should follow Perry around to see what he is up to. Ways must be found to punish the big newspapers that ‘misreported’ Gujarat. Phones must be tapped. Mail must be surveyed. And so on.
Those who fail to recognise this caricature of their faith are called ‘anti-Hindu’ or even — the ultimate abuse in this crowd’s dictionary — ‘secularists’: We are now enemies of Hinduism, on par with Mahmud of Ghazni or Aurangzeb and God alone knows who else.
But never mind the self-righteousness. Think about the arrogance of this conception: the notion that the world’s greatest religion, one that has survived for hundreds of years, needs to be guarded by little men with knobbly knees, khaki chaddis and silly moustaches who will protect the heritage of centuries of Hinduism by doing PT in the morning and running petrol pumps in the afternoon!
Who gave these people the right to speak for Hindus? What makes them better Hindus than the rest of us? Where does it say in the Rig Veda that He Who Steals Government Land Is The Guardian of Hinduism?
If the their years in office have taught us anything, it is this: finally, when you take away the knickers, the self-righteousness and the Muslim-bashing, they are just like every other political party.
No better. But may be a little worse.
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tuxedo
tuxedo
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Re: Petrol Pumpers and Land Grabbers
«on:
08/27/02 at 19:41:26 » |
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"Ask not what the country has done for you,
Ask what you have done for your country" :) |
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Inamdar
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Re: Petrol Pumpers and Land Grabbers
«on:
08/28/02 at 00:13:23 » |
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Aurangzeb and Mahmud treated his subjects alike.
They didnt distingush people based on religions.
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