11-13-2007, 01:25 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>When Congress ran riot </b>
Pioneer.com
Second Opinion: RN Chawla
This refers to Kanchan Gupta's article, "Half-truths don't help Muslims" (Coffee Break, October 28). Besides placing the violence and the killings resulting therefrom in their proper perspective, based on the figures as given in reply to a parliamentary question, the writer has provided a telling commentary on what he rightfully terms as horrendous events.
I do not know as to why Mr Gupta's did not mention the reprisal killings in Bihar resulting from the killing of Hindus in Noakhali immediately preceding Independence. Louis Fischer, in his The Life Of Mahatma Gandhi, has provided a graphic account of the incidents. The relevant extract is reproduced below from the chapter "The Birth of Two Nations":
"But worse woes were in store for the sorrowing Mahatma in the neighbouring province of Bihar with a population of 31,000,000 Hindus and 5,000,000 Muslims. <b>The events in Noakhali and Tripura had incensed the majority community; 25th October was declared 'Noakhali Day'. Speeches by Congressmen and sensational newspaper headlines whipped the Hindus into hysteria and thousands paraded the streets and country lanes shouting 'Blood for Blood'. In the next week, the number of persons officially verified as killed by rioters, wrote the Delhi Correspondent of the London Times was 4,580. Gandhi later put the total at more than 100,000. They were predominantly Muslims."</b>
Apart from the death toll exceeding that of the pogrom against Sikhs in 1984 and the post-Godhra violence in Gujarat in 2002, mentioned by Mr Gupta, the reprisal killings by Congressmen in the post-Noakhali Bihar riots and following the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi- based on the motto of an-eye-for-an-eye-are obvious despite the Congress's stated commitment to Gandhian ideology and principles.
It is unfortunate that a bunch of 'secularists', some of whom have changed tack repeatedly and enjoyed power, manage the 'M-Y' (Muslim-Yadav) or 'M-D' (Muslim-Dalit) vote in the very State that witnessed horrendous riots in 1946. Other pseudo-secular parties and outfits are also trying to whip up communal frenzy for the sake of electoral gains by harping on the Gujarat violence that took place five years ago. <b>They do not perhaps realise that like the Bourbon kings of France, who did not learn any lesson from history, the 'secularists' by following such ruinous policy are dividing the country along communal lines. </b>
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Pioneer.com
Second Opinion: RN Chawla
This refers to Kanchan Gupta's article, "Half-truths don't help Muslims" (Coffee Break, October 28). Besides placing the violence and the killings resulting therefrom in their proper perspective, based on the figures as given in reply to a parliamentary question, the writer has provided a telling commentary on what he rightfully terms as horrendous events.
I do not know as to why Mr Gupta's did not mention the reprisal killings in Bihar resulting from the killing of Hindus in Noakhali immediately preceding Independence. Louis Fischer, in his The Life Of Mahatma Gandhi, has provided a graphic account of the incidents. The relevant extract is reproduced below from the chapter "The Birth of Two Nations":
"But worse woes were in store for the sorrowing Mahatma in the neighbouring province of Bihar with a population of 31,000,000 Hindus and 5,000,000 Muslims. <b>The events in Noakhali and Tripura had incensed the majority community; 25th October was declared 'Noakhali Day'. Speeches by Congressmen and sensational newspaper headlines whipped the Hindus into hysteria and thousands paraded the streets and country lanes shouting 'Blood for Blood'. In the next week, the number of persons officially verified as killed by rioters, wrote the Delhi Correspondent of the London Times was 4,580. Gandhi later put the total at more than 100,000. They were predominantly Muslims."</b>
Apart from the death toll exceeding that of the pogrom against Sikhs in 1984 and the post-Godhra violence in Gujarat in 2002, mentioned by Mr Gupta, the reprisal killings by Congressmen in the post-Noakhali Bihar riots and following the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi- based on the motto of an-eye-for-an-eye-are obvious despite the Congress's stated commitment to Gandhian ideology and principles.
It is unfortunate that a bunch of 'secularists', some of whom have changed tack repeatedly and enjoyed power, manage the 'M-Y' (Muslim-Yadav) or 'M-D' (Muslim-Dalit) vote in the very State that witnessed horrendous riots in 1946. Other pseudo-secular parties and outfits are also trying to whip up communal frenzy for the sake of electoral gains by harping on the Gujarat violence that took place five years ago. <b>They do not perhaps realise that like the Bourbon kings of France, who did not learn any lesson from history, the 'secularists' by following such ruinous policy are dividing the country along communal lines. </b>
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