RESEARCH

The VHP, Bajrang Dal and their supporters in the RSS are blots on Hindu society; it's time the community's visible, educated faces disowned them openly _______________ Surajit Dasgupta _______________ I n the aftermath of the Union Government's gentle threat to the Orissa and Karnataka Governments and the mild censure of the militant Hindu outfits by BJP leader LK Advani, some apologists of the Sangh Parivar have now started a wild goose hunt for justifications. Never mind that when Muslims talk of their 'grievances', these very apologists say terrorism cannot be thus justified. This article is not to equate the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal with terrorists. It is to equate how both Hindu and Muslim thought leaders try to justify the violent outlet of frustration and anger by some fellows from their respective communities. One of the several excuses for hounding Christians in Karnataka, which the Parivar's defenders are forwarding, is the publication...

Revision of contemporary history for school-going children T his article has been necessitated by a debate that followed the last blog-post, " Can't Let Go ," which went in for a major digression on to a debate on secularism at the insistence of a person opposed to the tenor of the article. This post, hence, seeks to achieve three objectives: first, telling those who have been out of touch of history, civics and politics — ever since they left these subjects at the secondary school level — not to trust entirely what they were taught by their textbooks; second, telling Muslims to be wary of bleeding-heart secularists and, third, putting the record of MK Gandhi straight. I begin by addressing blog member Sandeep Nadar's last comment (edited): "For a solution to the communal situation, the first option is 'one religion'. The second is 'no religion'. The third is 'have your religions but don't object to those of others even if they do'...

Hurriyat-Lashkar-Jaish-Harkat's Kashmir would be Taliban's Afghanistan II World beware! Masood Azhar's rally in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, where he had vowed to recruit half a million terrorists. He managed to recruit many more _______________ Surajit Dasgupta _______________ T here is no need for any Indian to get worked up for what national self-flagellation champion Arundhati Roy said yesterday — that Kashmir needs ' AzAdI ' from India as much as India needs ' AzAdI ' from Kashmir. Instead, as senior journalist Harinder Baweja reminded Times Now in the debate in response to Roy's statement, let us think of Vir Sanghvi and any other known opinion maker who is less of a maverick than Roy. Sanghvi is one of the two writers who, in their respective columns in the same newspaper — Hindustan Times — had suggested last week that the Indian union set the Kashmir valley free for it to fend for itself. The presumption made in course of their arguments by Vir San...