Not even in my worst nightmares did I ever dream that I had to qualify myself as a tolerant Indian belonging to the majoritarian section. The country is going to the dogs and the rising intolerance at display will never let our PM Modi fulfill his pet project – ‘Make in India’. When the government’s members and allies are segmenting India on religion and faith and deciding what one can eat, wear, see and speak, who the hell will come to India, forget the ambition of getting them set up business here and ‘Make-in-India’???
“Kaala Akshar Bhains Barabar”, a Hindi saying befits Sena hooligans who have discovered that ink is best used not for penning opinions and thoughts but to smear the faces who dare to write or speak anything contrary to their belief. What does the state and the government do? Absolutely nothing. I thought PM Narendra Modi was a strict taskmaster and a disciplinarian who kept his men in line. But I don’t see that Modi now when the country is under siege of intolerant self-proclaimed nationalists.
India always had an image of a country whose people are warm, welcoming and tolerant. International media is taking note of men killed for eating a particular meat, tourists threatened to be skinned for a tattoo and foreign artists/writers (who come with Visa) threatened if they are from a particular country. Why not ban issuing Visa to any and every Pakistani?. Stop them at the source itself but if you don’t do that then ensure that they are not harmed by your cadre and ally. I have been hearing from my expat friends that the image of that India is under question. Intolerant India will not help PM Modi and his government in attracting foreign investment, inbound tourism and ‘Make in India’ a reality. Swach Bharat won’t attract tourists when they are scared of being lynched for eating something or having any tattoo. Swach Soch (Pure Thoughts) is needed more than Swach Bharat now.
The people in power are too arrogant. Their spokesperson are worse. They need to come down from their high horses of major political victory and see the reality on the ground. Please don’t let intolerance define the country’s character. Please let us be free…in expressing our thoughts, actions and words. Please!!!
I so agree with you.. There was never any problem with people eating beef or not eating.. It was available and who ate could eat it.. The worst incident was the Australian tourist guy.. The couple must have been scared shit out of their lives.. I don’t think they will ever come back to India or suggest their friends to come.. There goes all Modis so called schemes to attract foreign investments
I call BS on this. We live in a country where riots break out over beef/pork eating. Modi has nothing to do with it. Forget Independent India, Congress, BJP etc, our first war of independence in 1857 broke out over the use of pig/cow fat in cartridges that soldiers had to bite to use in guns. As horrifying as murder is, this is not really surprising to me.
As for taking offence over the goddess tattoo, this is the age of ‘cultural appropriation’ protests. Native Americans in the USA are protesting the use of their ‘chiefs’ as sports mascots, as are aboriginals in Australia over the kuril imagery, and African Americans over braiding, they are all pushing back against ‘cultural appropriation’ by the West.
And no, this is not harming India’s image and ‘make in India’ brand in the global marketplace. China is a 1000 times more intolerant and dictatorial, do you see them losing out on trade or tourism? Or for that matter the middle-east?
Ha Ha! Announcing and throwing Beef party is considered secular, hip and tolerance when it is clearly meant to offend and instigate others. If the positions are reversed and somebody draws and organises a Charlie Hebdo Cartoon party or Innocence video screening, i am quite sure the media will cover it differently and the organisers will be lynched by the mob instead of throwing ink as protest. Either learn to respect all religions or provide freedom for all speech like USA. Beef ban is legal in many states, it was just the previous state Govt’s who were not enforcing the law for minority appeasement and vote bank politics. Now, now generally what do we call people who break laws??
And killing has been going on both sides on this issue, Prashant poojari was killed by 6 Muslim guys from SDPI and PFI because he was protesting against illegal killing of cows and even the prime witness has been killed in this case. Best of all, no media coverage on this case by MSM like NDTV, Times now etc. Only NewsX covered it and the Congress MP on board said he deserved it !! No twitter outrage by the so-called “intellectuals” on the cases like this as this does not fit their narrative
Taslima Nasreen has given a big slap on the faces of the so call outraged authors who are returning their rewards now but were totally silent when she was targetted by the Muslim groups, there was zero support for her from authors and the Media, Taslima says Secularism and tolerance in India means Anti-Hindu, excellent, honest interview by Taslima
And who can forget the abuse, torture and brutality against the PETA activist when she was just campaigning against Animal sacrifice/Kurbaani, just a single girl with a request placard was brutalised and no national media covered it, no twitter outrage by the self-proclaimed intellectuals too as they know this topic will not fit their narrative and neither do they have the guts to take on Muslim groups without getting your head chopped off, here is the Video of the Woman PETA activist getting brutally attacked by secular people
Hope you will have the decency to post this comment otherwise i will stop coming to this blog, If you start a political, cultural or social debate then you should also have the decency to post the different views on that topic.
I am tolerant so I will not stop you from your opinion even though you disagree with my viewpoint. Disagreement is cool!
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Loved your post!! Its sad that today it needs to take courage to say one is a secular Indian. I grew up in a country believing it was a way of life and a matter of pride. The dude who calls BS wants our beautiful country to be like China (HAHAHA) what is truly shocking is he is okay with religious atrocities and killings because it wont affect trade and tourism ! wow really pathetic let teh killings continue as long as the dollars flow in!
As for the Australian couple – the guy was a kid, did part of his schooling in India! you can disagree with how he chose to express himself but you cannot harass the kid!!
I cant even get into how moronic Eitos’s argument is hahahhah
Why did or do people think Modi will shut these people up? He was and remains part of these groups and supports this lunacy! I was once verbally attacked by now an ex-friend(!) who verbally attacked me and called me anti-Hindu just because I said i don’t like Modi, the RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. She also automatically assumed that I am therefore a Congress supporter..! Do Hindus really think they are safe? First the Muslims, Christians and others will be attacked, Dalits and other so called lower castes who are Hindus themselves are anyway not safe, then Hindus who eat beef, do not dress, speak, live in accordance to these groups version of ‘right’s’ and ‘wrong’s’ will also be attacked. Women will be told to stay home at night. Where will this rubbish end? We never leave any opportunity to make fun of and criticise some of the hardcore Islamic countries. India is heading that way. Do we want to bring our children up in such an environment? We’ll tell them, ‘you know, in our days, there were many religions in India. We could wear and eat what we wanted. Live freely. Women had freedom…..’
Jack i agree with you, i dont understand this whole argument of banning certain kind of food because it offends others. So if a non-hindu eats beef and it offends Hindus, then if a Hindu worships his idols it might offend Muslims or Christians who find idol worshipping satanic. Are we living in a democracy or not? This is NOT a Hindu country…get that in ur head all u crazies..its a secular country !! Do we really want to be like Saudi Arabia? Nope? Because the minute you elect intolarant self proclaimed Hindu nationalists like Modi then we are inching closer to being a Hindu country and not a democratic secular India.
And Etios your argument makes no sense…i have noticed ppl who defend right wing nut jobs always like to whine…oh a Muslim / (insert any other minority) person did such a mean thing and no one publicised it..waah waah…we are being persecuted by the media, blah blah( forget the fact that we are in majority) Pls spare us tolarant Indians..i dont care what others eat….live and let live !!
@dipti
“We never leave any opportunity to make fun of and criticise some of the hardcore Islamic countries”
Really? on a public forum? or in public?
I am happy and surprised to see you hale and hearty if you’ve ‘really’ managed to make fun/criticize .
Its how you feel – agreed – but you really had me at that when you tried comparing our situation to a Middle East religious and intolerant country.
@cherry
” what is truly shocking is he is okay with religious atrocities and killings because it wont affect trade and tourism! wow really pathetic let teh killings continue as long as the dollars flow in!”
Killing(s)? I think the media bombing has really made a good effect and made you start looking at a single killing multiple times.
@Jack
Appreciate the tolerance and allowing opposing views
Lynching
I personally strongly condemn the Lynching of a person due to beef issue. That’s absolutely not allowed – what was the police doing!?
The security of a place lies with the State Government (UP – Samajwadi Party) They should be on top of it.
And the media goes ballistic on the central government and Modi? I wonder why?
Modi needs to make a statement for each and every incident in the country –
Lets get him to read an obituary at the end of every day for all incidents in the country. That’s his job right?
I also condemn the lynching of the person in Karnataka by the “minority” community. And this person was just protesting against illegal killing of cows!
The FACT that the second case is pretty much ignored by the media, is alarming.
It just shows how biased the media is. Or Maybe Saffron and adding Modi to it means $$$?
Also the fact that it is so close to Bihar Elections makes only Dadri worth talking.?
Pakistan Ban – I am for it – No trade or visas, till there are concrete results about reducing terrorist activities from their side. I agree with Jack for a Government to have a clear view and issue notices on this – you cant allow things to be out of control once a visa is issued/ and an invite is sent.
Rational October , Etios , spot on . I am with u guys . All these false propaganda for defaming Modi is infact uniting all Hindus who were feeling left out and suppressed before. Now we can proudly say that we are Hindus .
Rational. Before @me…read…i said India is ‘heading’ that way. Have you really not heard Indians criticising Saudi Arabia? Yet they are all ‘hale and hearty’. Being rational is one thing, trying to look for things where there exist none is quite another.
Cherry, You are obviously no good at reading comprehension. I can’t think of any other reason you would think I want India to turn into China, or that I support atrocities such as riots and murders. If on an other hand you are deliberately trying out a strawman’s argument (I suggest you look it up on Google), than I pity you. You might think its a great tactic, but people can see right through such arguments.
P.S. It’s a ‘she’ not a ‘he’. I always find it funny that self proclaimed secularists are such borderline sexists. Khushwant Singh and Vinod Mehta come to mind.
Rational- Modi can tweet about Navjot Singh Sidhu’s blood clot in his leg but couldn’t be bothered talking about an incident that has rocked the country?
Reema- Were you ashamed of being hindu before?! How were Hindus being suppressed before..?? Hindus were and are still killing Hindus- Dalits. Now you are proud to be Hindu because you can kill someone who eats, thinks, walks differently from what you think is right? And Modi will keep his mouth shut about it. Then your sense of pride stems from a very wrong place.
Blaming Prime Minister Modi for all this actually shows the level of intellect of these so called “intellectuals”. Even when something happens in UP which is under the Gunda raaj of Mullah Mulayam, it is blamed on Modi, these so called “intellectuals” don’t even know what is the difference between central government and state government.
@Reema: Now you will be mocked and ridiculed for your statement, In India it is a crime to say you are a proud Hindu, show me one prominent personality who has the guts to say ” I am proud to be a Hindu”. The media, the intellectuals etc will make sure that such personality is finished and an example will be set for the future. Only our Prime Minister Modi had the guts to say he is a proud Hindu and for this he will be paying the price till he is alive.
And i agree with your sentiment that Hindus were suppressed in India for centuries because of their soft nature, first by the raping, pillaging and religious conversions by Muslim invaders, then by brutal British rule and now by successive Governments who find it very easy to divide and rule and create hysteria based on religions, after all vote bank has become very substantial now that you have 20% population voting en-bloc. You just have to go to Jama Masjid Bukhari and get votes en-block but these same outraged people don’t bat an eyelid for the Indian secularism and the media and the so called-intellectuals will behave as it is cool and fine and no protests or negative campaign is started over such utterly pathetic practices.
And Don’t even talk about secularism, secularism won’t exist in India till there is Uniform Civil code implemented, where are all the people getting outraged over non-implementation of Uniform civil code? In fact all these so called ” seculars” come out and oppose Uniform civil code and the very same media and tolerant people became silent when demand for abolition of Triple Talak and four-wives were being demanded by Muslim Women, there was errie silence on this issue few months back. No article by Jack on Indian Secularism then. The movement was crushed like a mosquito and media and the “tolerant” people have happily moved on that they won’t have to say or report anything on a matter which will go away from their narrative and agenda.
@Real
1) “And no, this is not harming India’s image and ‘make in India’ brand in the global marketplace. China is a 1000 times more intolerant and dictatorial, do you see them losing out on trade or tourism? Or for that matter the middle-east?”
–>China is intolerant but not losing out on trade —> If India is intolerant, she will not lose out on trade —> let India become China
Now that I have explained what you said maybe you want to use the English language to better express yourself.
2) Aww honey don’t pity me, maybe read a book or two. Open up that intolerant mind and heart of yours. Learn to love and respect other faiths and when you witness atrocities against one that doesn’t practice your religion have the courage to stand up for them.
3)I always use “He” for those less blessed intellectually.
XOXO
Cherry
I do not care about people’s religion and caste as I care for them to act like humans first,But now-days being a Hindu, Muslim or Christian is most important. I simply do not understand when did Hindus became pure vegetarians.Yes we do not eat beef or buffalo but many Hindus in India do consume fish, chicken and lamb on regular basis. These people belong to coasts, mountains, river valleys, deserts and plains and can be found in every part of India. But I forgot that vegetarianism are only Hindus is thinking encouraged by Baniyas in the country. I am Bengali and I have lived in Delhi for a long time and many of my so called Baniya friends do not call me any event in there house as I am an Bengali non vegetarian.I am an Hindu that too an upper cast Brahmin and I am proud of my roots and tradition. Call me communal if you want.But these fanatics need to be controlled.
Aww Cherry, you poor little darling. You obviously don’t know how to read facts and make logical conclusions. For example: Apple is a fruit + Ram hates apples does NOT equal Ram hating all fruits.
So far you have used a strawman’s argument and a fallacy. What’s next? False analogies?
BTW you refer to those you perceive as having lesser intellectual capacity as a ‘he’? You do realize that’s sexist, don’t you? Such irony from someone advocating “love and respect”.