[Reader-list] The "Sickular" History

[Venugopalan K M]

Dear Rakesh,

While I have no quarrel with the content of your post, I wish to
clarify that the statement I made there was just contextual and it did
not intend to dismiss the basic concerns  of people like roti, kapada
our makaan as non existent.
I absolutely agree that there needs proof about peoples' verdict in
favour of secularism, before any one making such assertion. But again,
if we don't care to read the writing on the wall, where else shall we
go for proof?
BJP has got a rude shock everywhere, even in Gujarat, where their vote
share has actually decreased by 0.9%. This, read with the fact that
even against the probable expressions of anti-incumbency every where,
people by and large thwarted the communal agenda of the BJP, Shiva
Sena and the like,  one  definitely has the proof!

On the contrary, If people had brought back the BJP and the NDA to
power everywhere, I would still not take it as a proof of people being
communal; instead, I would say that people had been misled by the
false promises and propaganda of the communal BJP and their allies!
Gujarat had returned to the BJP rule even after the complicity of the
state administration in the violent killings of Muslims in the
aftermath of Godhra was clearly indicated; still, I believe that lot
momentum has since then  been gained by the secular forces, thanks to
the consolidation of non-BJP actors.To a certain extent, this is
reflected in the Gujarat peoples' latest verdict too.

Proof on either side may be technically correct or incorrect; I am
concerned less with the technical correctness than with the political
correctness. Further, I would like to go even beyond such concerns of
political correctness,  if I be confronted with  a malady of such an
enormous propensity-  like talking and acting in terms of hate and
exclusivity being even fashionable among certain sections of the
privileged and the elites! It might not be politically correct for me
to welcome the return of the UPA rather than sort of a Left dominated
set up; but still I am able to appreciate and empathize with the
people who gave the Congress led UPA a comfortable majority in
preference to propagators of communalism on the one hand and to those
riding on the waves of identity politics or  those who preach
socialism and practice a kind of capitalist  patriarchy or  male
chauvinist regionalism / parochialism, on the other.

Thanks and regards,
Venu.

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 8:07 PM, Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Pawan and Venugopalan jee
>
> I think without any proof, it's wrong to say people voted for secularism.
> This way, if people voted BJP to power, then it would mean they voted for
> communalism!
>
> This is nonsense. People vote mainly on livelihood issues. They vote on
> inflation, terrorism (not only from Islamic and Hindutva terror, but also
> upper caste terror or backward caste terror which runs supreme in many
> regions on Dalits, or state terror like Salwa Judum in Chhatisgarh which
> benefits some and creates problems for some others), roti, kapda, makan and
> so on.
>
> We should not denounce our people directly or indirectly without any proof
> whether they voted for this or that.
>
> As for Pawan jee, well, political parties have converted 'secularism' to
> 'sickularism', but Indian public by and large is 'secular', not necessarily
> because they may believe in secularism, but because everybody wants peace to
> prosper in their life and remain safe and secure.
>
> Regards
>
> Rakesh
>



-- 
http://venukm.blogspot.com/