Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Natwar Singh Should Resign

Unable to make tough decisions on Iran, he cowers behind the excuse of India having 150 million Muslims. As Indian Express puts it well, Wrong, Minister

He must resign for he has, in effect, argued that Indian Muslims are a liability and a shackle on Indian policy making. This is the kind of garbage we expect from the saffron-right, not from a leader of the secular Congress.

Muslim soldiers have given their lives to defend India. Natwar Singh has disgraced their sacrifice. This is a major test for Congress which, if it has any decency left, must force him to quit -- immediately.

10 comments:

doubtinggaurav said...

"Congress which, if it has any decency left",
Heh
(As Instapundit would put it.)
This is not first instance of minority appeasement from Congress.
I would be much surprised, if your notion of secularism is inspired by Congress.
If I have to choose political party, I think BJP is the lesser devil.

Regards

libertarian said...

PR,

Lantos had a point about this guy being "dense". If he was searching for a plausible fence-sitting explanation, this was a terrible one.

Realistically though, he's not going to resign - and I don't expect the Congress to force him to do any such thing. Heck, the Congress is still wondering how to rehabilitate murderers like Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and Bhagat ... forget about small indiscretions like insulting all Indian Muslims.

Primary Red said...

dg:

Well, at the end of the day, congress is the big tent -- a mirror to India's own cynical self. It's not revolutionary -- its revolution is long come & gone -- but its a little bit of every slice of India.

BJP started out as a revolutionary idea -- albeit one with fear at its core (fear of Islam and other minority faiths & cultures). Majority fear and bigotry are twins -- and BJP has done precious little to discourage the latter. A party of Narendra Modi is a party on a hopelessly wrong path.

Best regards.

doubtinggaurav said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
doubtinggaurav said...

PR,

What you see as Big tent is just a pedestal where false idols of Gandhis are placed.

As far as Majority fear is concerned, it is a natual response to Hindu bashing that goes in intellectual circles in India.

I don't think minorities have acquited themselves either.

Nilu said...

That is just classic Desi way of associating a prty with an individual.

Modi happens to be in BJP - he could have been in any party and still manipulated the affairs of the state to his advantage.

libertarian said...

nilu, I see nothing wrong with associating a party with individuals who have disproportionate influence on it's ideology.

dg, the people seem to have put the Gandhis on a pedestal - the Congress is just being rational in playing to it's strengths. Don't quite understand your point on "Hindu bashing" and minorities "acquitting" themselves. If you would care to elaborate ...

pr, interesting metaphor of the tent - I think I get what you mean.

history_lover said...

The Congress has been a big tent party for a quite long time
Thus in the pre -independence days Madan Mohan Malviya and hindu mahasaba -ites and leftwing elements were both part of the congress

doubtinggaurav said...

PR,

( My apology in advance for my coming rant)

If riots are your way of analyzing then it may be instructive to look at the past history to get a perspective.
I think for riots both parties are to be blamed, BUT I don't think Muslims are quite the innocent lambs being slaughtered by fanatical Hindus.Ofcourse our ELM and intellectuals in it's infinite wisdom not to show the other side.
How many times have you read about militant in north east (supported by churches) butchering activist from Ramkrishna Mission and RSS, I assure there are quite a few incidents.
But Staines (who was converting poor tribals), was awared Padma Shri !
Media (Indian and western), rah rahs about Mother Teresa. who took money from all sort of tyrants and despots, but when was it last you heard anything about exemplary work being done Ramkrishna mission and other hindu organisation, be assured their work is not trivial.

You treat Modi as Hitler, I think He is a insensitive jerk, which is same as what Gandhis are.I rememeber when Sabarmati expressed was burned in Godhara, I was hurt by the incident, but what enraged me was the response of media, which instead of condemning it, looked for root cause going to any length in order to "exaplain" the massacre (and it was massacre), one "letter to editor" in TOIwent as far as to suggest that "those guys had it coming "
Why doesn't media wails and beats it's breasts when Hindus are killed.
If the secularists (not you, the usual sorts )think that it is the destiny of hindus or that it is duty to "turn the other cheek", I refuse to accept it, I refuse to turn my cheek or refuse to be meek.

Libertarian,

"dg, the people seem to have put the Gandhis on a pedestal "

People have also endorsed Nazis,communists and monsters of all hues, but that doesn't justify Gandhis.
I am not convinced that people (as in mob) are any more intelligent than a single individual. People tend to make erroneous and disaterous choices throughout history. Past century is a testamony of this disaster, this includes our disasterous performance, when "we could have been contender".
It's the duty of wiser people to keep the masses informed.
Same way I think it is a moral crime to obfuscate masses for personal gains, power or glory, which Gandhis have done with utmost contempt and cynicism
It is this that congress has been guilty of, so what you think as rational to me sounds like crass manipulation.This may be morality of "bonnie and clyde" ,but certainly doesn't behoove leaders.
Regarding hindu bashing, I hope you realise terms like "Hindu rate of growth" were no terms of affection, but outrageous propoganda by nehruvian socialists who had nothing but contempt for our Hindu tradition.
Go to "www.deesha.org",
where Atanu has better words than I have.
Regarding Muslims (I hate using terms like Majority and Minority, it's divisive),their biggest short coming (after independence),has been,to lean so much on state for their so called different identity that at present they are being mollycoddled
A significant percentage of Muslims have started beleving in Appeasement as their fundamental rights.

History lover,

Yes you are right pre independence congress was indeed a centrist party in true sense (with a mix of left and right), However once Nehru gained power He purged (OK! marginalised), the right, so I find it farcical to call it centrist.


PS Any one knowns how to put HTML in comments (HREF is invalid methinks)

history_lover said...

Perhaps at the central level leftists may have been dominant in the Congress after independence but I don't think that was true at the state level.
For instance P.D.Tandon ,Gobindh Ballabh Pant etc.. in UP were rightwing

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