Reckless and Idiotic?
I am reading with interest much of the coverage of the attack on Akshardham. Particularly, I am curious to see what the response from members of the Sangh Parivar will be. First I want to point out, how interesting it is to me that both L.K. Advani and A.B. Vajpayee were able to go to Gandhinagar immediately, while following Godhra it took Vajpayee, at least, a month before he made it to visit the victims of the carnage there. Also, interesting and scary story in todays Times of India. I used to be hesitant to label groups like the VHP as militant, extremist, and fundamentalist. In fact, I still hesitate to use the word fundamentalist, because the VHP does not beleive in the fundamentals of Hinduism. Extreme, and militant, and even terrorist are applicable however. To me, the VHP's religion is that of communalism, and the politicization of religion solely for political gains. Why hasn't the VHP been booked under POTA yet?

Now, this planned Bandh, a protest designed to "channelize feelings that could otherwise erupt in violence," as VHP leader Surendra Jain described it, will only foment communal conflict. Who are they protesting against, the Indian government, the Pakistani or American government, Muslims? No one even knows who was behind the attack yet!

"In a statement, VHP international general secretary Praveen Togadiya blamed the "hypocritical indignation of those leaders who expressed shame for the post Godhra violence for triggering the attack on Akshardham and the carnage that followed."
Togadiya warned that "the perpetrators of such crime as well as the political forces which support them will face Hindu retribution."

What exaclty is Hindu retribution, more violence, in what, the name of Hinduism? I really beleive people like Jain and Togadiya need to reevaluate their religious foundations, or perhaps seek some mental health counseling.

Surender Jain said: "Most Muslims in India support jehad and in doing so are helping Pakistan’s designs." He also described madarrsas as "terrorist factories" and criticised political parties for "insulting the Hindus of Gujarat" in their "pseudo-secularist attitude" which encouraged incidents like Akshardham.
At the same time the VHP resolutely refused to accept that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s controversial utternaces could have triggered the attack.

posted by sajit @ 12:40 PM