[Reader-list] No mention of emergency anywhere in schooling ?

[A.K. Malik]

Dear Rakesh Ji,
               The start up paragraphs are outstanding.Before I give my views on the rest of the paragraphs, I may make it clear that I am neither a Hindu Protagonist nor a Muslim basher nor an RSS sympathiser but what I see, read and observe day-to-day forces me to write.I have yet to see a single person who gives opinion against any Muslim writing about their plight or rights or a Christian doing the same but there are hundreds who would bash a Hindu if he/she writes anything on the plight of Hindus. May be it is akin to a neighbour coming to your house complaining about your child for some alleged act to his/her child and to placade him/her and you slap your child irrespective of the fact whether he/she is at fault or not to make yourself honourable and respectful in the eyes of the neighbour and this pleases the neighbour.I am a Delhi resident and never saw any RSS element doing any mischief against sikhs in 1984 riots while you write that RSS to a
 certain extent supported it. 
It is only our democracy which allows people to make any type of allegations without any material proof against any one and everyone.If the rule of law is prevailing in our country and there is sufficient material evidence against any criminal activity done by anyone or any organisation, let the rule of law prevail and the guilty punished. When sufficent evidence is not there all accused are set free by the courts.But BJP etc become exceptions. They continue to be non-secular and blameable for every riot taking place in the country.If it is right ban such organisations,the Constitution and other laws enacted by Parliament permit doing so.
When Modi says Afzal Guru has not been hanged in spite of being convicted by the Supreme Court of India, Rahul Gandhi replies by saying he is in the queue for mercy petition to be decided and Modi wants him to be hanged out of queue  or something to this effect.Well if everybody has to be in the normal Queue can someone ask these politicians including Rahul Gandhi to be in Queue while travelling and not take predence over general public.Let them all be in normal queues.
We in our daily lives see  appeasement for Muslim and other sections for vote bank politics instead of imparting education,equality of opportunities irrespective of caste,creed and religion.

(A.K.Malik)  


--- On Mon, 5/11/09, Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] No mention of emergency anywhere in schooling ?
> To: "Rajen Uppinangadi" <rajen882uppinangadi at gmail.com>
> Cc: reader-list at sarai.net, A.Khanna at sms.ed.ac.uk
> Date: Monday, May 11, 2009, 3:55 PM
> Dear Rajen jee (and all)
> 
> It is certainly right that children are not learning of the
> Emergency.
> But here there are two issues which must be looked at
> before drawing
> conclusions.
> 
> Firstly, there are many incidents which must be looked at
> in our
> textbooks, and not just the Emergency. The tragedy of the
> Partition
> has never been dealt with in our textbooks, from any point
> of view. It
> seems our govt. believes that just putting out numbers and
> mentioning
> certain incidents is enough of tribute paid to those dead.
> Our history
> textbooks should deal comprehensively with the Partition,
> the possible
> reasons as to why it started, the sociological reasons of
> why such
> grave violence took place, and what were the after effects
> of these.
> 
> There are other events and policies to be looked at as
> well. We have
> never looked in our history as to why India chose to be a
> democracy,
> when it could also have become a dictatorship at that time.
> The
> reasons and rationale given in our history as to why it
> became a
> democratic country must be explained to students, and the
> importance
> of democracy in particular must also be explained, for only
> would then
> the students would be able to make sense of why the
> Emergency was
> wrong. Otherwise, irrespective of whether it was there in
> our syllabus
> or not, the Emergency would be just that, a day to give
> speeches about
> like the three national holidays have become, without us
> learning
> anything from the reasons as to why these days are
> celebrated.
> 
> And not only this, we need to look at other events as well.
> For
> example, who can forget the 1984 Delhi pogrom where 3,000
> Sikhs were
> butchered in a single day thanks to goons led by Congress
> leaders,
> with the leadership under Rajiv Gandhi doing nothing? Who
> can equally
> forget the inaction of Narsimha Rao and the culpability of
> Kalyan
> Singh in the Babri Masjid demolition on 6th December, 1992?
> Who can
> forget the riots and mayhem unleashed across India after
> that,
> particularly in Mumbai by goons of the Shiv Sena? And who
> can equally
> forget Godhra and the way it was politically used by some
> people to
> unleash terrible atrocities on the innocents of Gujarat,
> most of whom
> were Muslims?
> 
> All these incidents must be taught and our citizens must be
> also
> taught the importance of values like fundamental rights,
> rights to
> minorities, and also the value systems on the basis of
> which our state
> is supposed to function, like democracy and secularism
> (which people
> today have now begun to abuse, thereby endangering the
> very
> foundations on the basis of which the Indian Republic was
> built upon).
> Equally, they must know such incidents which tried to
> weaken this base
> of India so that they can at least decide how to go about
> improving
> India in their own ways.
> 
> Secondly, the RSS is as culpable of destroying India as the
> Congress,
> if not more. The RSS from the very beginning has had the
> conception of
> Hindu Rashtra, which is utter nonsense. The Muslims who
> stayed back in
> India can't be thrown into the sea, but if the RSS had its'
> way, they
> would have to live as worse than second class citizens(this
> coming
> from the mouth of Golwalkar, a chief of the RSS). Equally,
> the RSS has
> been responsible in acts which can only make human beings
> feel ashamed
> if they have ever been associated with this
> organizations(that is if
> they are actually human beings and not animals).
> 
> The RSS first of all was indirectly involved in the Gandhi
> assassination case, and this came from the mouth of the
> judges who
> actually judged the case. Unfortunately, it couldn't be
> proved. But
> after his assassination, the RSS activists were
> distributing sweets
> for the same. Then, the RSS indulged in creating riots
> after refugees
> from East Pakistan(now Bangladesh) in 1950 started coming.
> After that,
> the RSS cadres combined with the Congress cadres in the
> 1969 riots,
> considered the mother of riots in Gujarat. Then of course,
> the RSS
> ideology penetrated into the police and the RAF, which is
> why since
> 1977, there was one major cycle of riot every year
> somewhere at some
> place, or some massacre, be it Aligarh, Moradabad, Meerut,
> or even
> Nellie. Of course, the Congress was hand-in-glove with the
> RSS,
> ensuring the Hindu vote would consolidate behind them.
> 
> Then the RSS also supported to a certain extent the 1984
> riots. In
> this very forum, a statement was put up regarding the views
> of Nanaji
> Deshmukh, a prominent RSS leader, regarding what should be
> the Sikh
> response to the pogrom (which is to suffer and keep quiet).
> And then
> who can forget their own role in the mother of all frenzies
> resulting
> in the Babri Masjid demolition. (Again the Congress started
> this and
> the RSS continued from there, through the BJP, the Rath
> Yatra, the VHP
> and the Bajrang Dal and Co.).
> And finally, what about 2002? Who said that revenge for
> Godhra was
> being taken (through rapes and mutilation of dead bodies)?
> 
> The RSS has been also accused of misusing money given in
> the aftermath
> of the 2001 Gujarat earthquake to get weapons which were
> used during
> the 2002 post-Godhra violence. And you, dear Sir, seem to
> be living in
> some other era for actually stating that RSS has
> contributed greatly
> to the nation.
> 
> Probably, when every day terror attacks take place in this
> nation,
> people would realize that the RSS doesn't have the balls to
> protect
> the nation either through the BJP, the VHP or the Bajrang
> Dal. And by
> then it would be too late. If we have to end terror
> attacks, we have
> to finish those who keep on spreading terror for their own
> benefit, be
> it the fundamentalists on the Muslim side (read the
> Lashkar, the Jaish
> and their co. in India), or the fundamentalists on the
> Hindu side (be
> it the RSS and the Sangh Parivar or the Shiv Sena).
> 
> And most importantly, we should follow laws, not by
> coercion, but by
> choice after reasoning them out. Only then, does our
> democracy have
> some meaning. And only then would teaching Emergency and
> other events
> would have some meaning.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Rakesh
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