[Reader-list] request to Aditya and Pawan

[taraprakash]

Hi all. Monika's mail responding to several requests to take off these two 
members for making allegations about a respected member without being able 
to substantiate them, is quite understandable. The member/s have been banned 
in the past and they have rejoined with a changed name. It is not easy, if 
not impossible, to ensure a permanent ban on people on a community hosted in 
the cyber space. Moreover, as some members in their postings have suggested, 
that even if Aditya's and Pawan's mails were not always palatable, they have 
helped us to know some new intelectual nooks and corners to peep in to.

Aditya and Pawan, you have sensitize a lot of readers on the list about some 
issues which were on the backburner of the intellectual discourse on the 
list. Some members on the list recognize your importance, but you too should 
recognize the worth of the readers. The best way to win an argument, or to 
draw a serious attention to yor perspective, is to engage and not to offend 
your readers. You might have noticed from a sizable number of mails on this 
topic, you have offended a lot of members with a claim that you could not 
substantiate. In the heat of debate, we tend to make claims which have no 
basis. In order to maintain your credibility in future, you do retract and 
apologize for making a false claim. You will do a great service to this 
community if you apologize to Shuddha for the baseless allegations you made. 
An unconditional apology is not going to hurt you. Not apologizing will lead 
to the loss of any kind of credibility in your mails.

I hope you will take this mail in good faith.

Regards
TaraPrakash
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shuddhabrata Sengupta" <shuddha at sarai.net>
To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 8:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] About the list


> Dear Monica,
>
> I am writing this with the hope that this sorry chapter about false
> allegations on the list is now lurching towards conclusion. But
> before we achieve the closure we all need, a few clarifications and
> recapitulations are in order, for the sake of the record.
>
> It is my belief that your response as list administrator is a
> philosophical one, and upholds what I think are the best traditions
> of the Reader List of standing for the freedom of speech even of
> those with whom one agrees least of all. I agree to withdraw my
> demand that Aditya Raj Kaul and Pawan Durani be asked to leave the list.
>
> However, the least that Pawan Durani and Aditya Raj Kaul can do, if
> they are to be truly deserving, in my view of  the measured and
> considerate tone of the list administrator's response is to
> reciprocate by -
>
> - Offering an unconditional and unambiguous apology to all list
> members for seeking to mislead list members and making allegations
> without proof about people who write or say things that Kaul and
> Durani are in disagreement with being in the pay of 'terrorists' and
> 'foreign powers'.
>
> I think that a variety of different conflicting opinions and points
> of view is healthy. But a welcoming attitude to difference should not
> be taken to mean a licence to harm the reputations and persons of
> others. Most importantly, I believe it means never to say anything
> directly accusing another person of doing something if you do not
> have proof for it.
>
> From this time onwards, I suggest that we evolve a code of conduct
> that states
>
> 1) that no person, whosoever they may be should make any allegations
> on the personal conduct of another list member or any other third
> person, without offering proof for the same. Should this proof be
> found  wanting, they should apologize.
>
> 2) that people voluntarily agree to refrain from making sexist and
> homophobic remarks or use racist language of any kind.
>
> Even the most strong arguments can be made without attacking each
> other on the basis of the name that people carry or the bodies they
> have and the desires that they own up to. I do not see this in any
> way as a restriction on anyone's freedom to express their thoughts,
> feelings, desires, interests, ideas or questions. I propose that
> unless a person actively dissents at this stage, we take it that
> these principles are agreeable to all.
>
> regards
>
> Shuddha
>
>
>
> On 13-Nov-08, at 1:17 PM, Monica Narula wrote:
>
>> Dear All
>>
>> I think its rather cute the way dear everyone is asking for an
>> intervention from the admin - now increasingly feeling like a class
>> monitor!
>>
>> The coming years are going to be a difficult ones. There is going to
>> be a massive drop in employment opportunities, liquidity will fall,
>> infrastructure will remain half-built etc. There will also be an
>> increasing shrillness of speech. This, I am guessing, will lead to an
>> aggressive acceleration in both inclusive and exclusive
>> authoritarianism. So the future trajectory of the language game and
>> the rhetorical quotient on the reader-list will be something that I
>> am a little ambivalent about.
>>
>> I request list members to be aware that making charges without
>> substantial ground is more to do with incitement than to do with
>> discussion. It is odd that when the world is trying to come to term
>> with global seismic shocks that seem to come at all of us from all
>> directions, archaic accusations about the "foreign" seem to find some
>> votaries.
>>
>> Let us think a little harder. The world is not legible. In an
>> increasingly blurring reality, understanding the grounds of
>> accusations and rhetorical posturing will be necessary. Let us think
>> how to deal with language, and what it says, in what can feel like a
>> crumbling world, rather than merely becoming the dust that arises
>> from this process.
>>
>> best
>> Monica
>> List Admin
>>
>> Monica Narula
>> Sarai-CSDS
>> 29 Rajpur Road
>> Delhi 110 054
>> www.sarai.net
>>
>>
>> _________________________________________
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>
> _________________________________________
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> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with 
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