Hindus in India Criticize Bush

Todays Washington Post story, for some reason lumps all Hindus together as one voting bloc. While it be interesting if all Hindus in India voted as one, this is not the case. Nor is it that all Hindus think this war is good, or bad. While I am all for berating the Hindu right in India, Mr. Lancaster's piece does more than just convey, as the WP purports, how the world perceives the war in Iraq. The piece also serves as a social commentary on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and in general the Sangh Parivar groups, and how they are against Bush. My criticism aside, I think John Lancaster's piece is worth a read, feven only because it shows that all Hindus, despite belonging to a certain ideology, are not totally anti-Muslim. I am excerpting part of the article below.

Several in the group saw evidence of American hypocrisy. They wondered why, if Saddam Hussein is so bad, the United States doesn't mete out the same punishment to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, whom they accuse of sponsoring Islamic militants in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Still, Jha, the ad salesman, said he could find no fault with the war coverage on Pakistan's government-run television news channel, which comes to him via cable. He was watching it this morning, he said, during a discussion of the suicide bombing that killed four U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint on Saturday. He said he agreed with the commentators, who described the attack as reasonable under the circumstances. "This is a war," he said. "This was not a terrorist attack." Someone switched on the television and tuned it to the BBC, which was showing footage of wounded children in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Arora had no doubt about who was responsible. "Isn't this a human rights violation?" he asked, anger tinging his voice. "America has no right to kill civilians."

posted by sajit @ 6:13 PM