The Great Indian Political Debate - 2

[acharya]

What happened in the 30th November meeting of the World Business Forum




A report by Ranjit Singh


http://www.betterindiausa.com/php/showArti...=&eventid\
=356&linkid=6


The commotion that prevailed in the 30th November meeting of the World Business
Forum, is yet another example of the fact that the NRIs in America have got more
communalized than the Indians in India.

There was a time when we used to hear only in temples, mosques, churches and
gurudwars, fanatics always talking against other religions. The talking point of
all these fanatics has always been and is still is similar and same. “My
religion is the best; other religions have evil elements in them and that the
other religions are conspiring to reduce our population strength, weaken us
politically and ultimately eliminate us.” Instead of preaching and explaining
the humanitarian aspects deeply ingrained in all the religions, these fanatics
kept infecting and are continuously infecting the young minds of their community
with the venom of communalism. Consequently, the religious communities of the
NRIs in America are in a state of virtual segregations, living within their own
communities, resulting in a very poor show of strength in American politics.

Unfortunately, the secular movement among the NRIs in America, being totally
marginalized, leaderless and directionless, no one ever dared to tell these
fanatics to concentrate only on the explanations of their scriptures and refrain
from breaking the pluralistic fabric of our nation.

Then they took the second step and captured the internet. Just click a few of
the websites of these fanatics and you will hang your head in shame. Lies, lies
and lies. No one dares to challenge them, as unfortunately, there is no true
secular forum of the NRIs in America.

Take, yet another step. Open your email and if you have 25-30 emails at the
same time, you can conclude without reading that something has happened in
India. If terrorists attack in J&K or a BJP legislator is killed in U.P, all
email writers are Hindus. If there are riots in Mau (U.P), all writers are
Muslims. And if a nun is raped, the writers are Christians. Fanaticism has gone
so deep that we see only communalism in it and fail to see the element of
criminality to be fought and defeated jointly.

We falsely believe that attacking other religions is the only way to defend our
community. We tend to forget that by fighting jointly and unitedly against
criminality, we protect the weaker sections of our community also. This pervert
love for our community brings us in the grip and under the leadership of the
fanatics.

But what happened in the 30th November meeting of the World Business Forum is
nothing but the evolution of communalism among the NRIs in America, entering
into an advanced stage.

World Business Forum of Kiran Mehta, as the name implies, should have been
entirely used to assist businesses to make presentations of their goods and
services. At the most, such forums may be used to honor achievers in trade,
industry, science and technology; though, very often, it amounts to flattery and
sycophancy. But in the commercial world, it does not matter much, if someone
pays to be promoted. But it is definitely objectionable, if and when such forums
are allowed to be hijacked by fanatics to make hate speeches to poison the minds
of listeners, against other communities.






Judging on these criteria, 30th November meeting of the World Business Forum
will be remembered as the beginning of the use of commercial forums to attack
other communities, resulting in economic boycotts. If we
don’t halt the trend, the 4th stage will not be far away-a Hindu abusing the
Muslim and vice versa in workplaces. Luckily, we are in America.

To halt this trend in the NRI community, we shall first have the true facts of
the episode.

The invitation sent by the World Business Forum was to tell, explain or
propagate “the proclamations from the U.S Congress in honor of two persons,
Narain Kataria and Devendra Singh.” It named many VIPs as guests of honor,
including our new Counsel General, Neelam Dev. The invitation was glamored with
great names like Congressmen. Gary Ackerman, Frank Pallone, Nita Lowey, Carolyn
Maloney, Gregory Meeks, Anthony Weiner, Peter King and Steve Israel.

But what was presented as great show of Indians’ strength and charisma to pull
the great American politicians, turned out to be a display of communal conflict.
Mr. Narain Kataria, instead of talking of the glory of India, began abusing a
painful chapter of our history to paint the Muslims black. Surprisingly, among
the audience, there was neither a single American Politician, nor any
representative from the Government of India, to hear the communal sermon. Thanks
to God or whom? The audience, however, included 3 Muslims, including a lady and
a big bunch of Kataria’s followers.

The show began with a documentary about a Banglore-based Hindu Charity, engaged
in education. Impression was given that that Charity does not discriminate
between Hindus and Muslims. This prompted a staunch, secular activist from the
Bohra Muslim community to stand up and donate dollars one hundred, with the
assurance to give more

But no body could foresee what was about to come. After Mr. Narain Kataria was
honored with a plaque, and not with any proclamation from the U.S Congress, by
Dr. Krisna Zaveri, he came to the mike and began preaching that India is only
for the Hindus and that it is time to make India a Hindu Rashtra. Emphasizing on
the bloody saga of 1947, he pronounced Muslims as terrorists and foreigners in
India and, hence, deserve to be expelled.


Tayeb Poonawala stood up once again. This time, not to donate but to protest.
“Mr. Kataria, don’t talk absurd; don’t insult my community. India is our
motherland,also.Talk of India and not of religion.” A commotion followed. Tayeb
Poonawala appealed to some of the people with secular credentials to support his
cause. No one did. However, an acknowledged leaders of secular movement among
the NRIs. Dr. Kewal Ramani, intervened, comforted Tayeb Sahib, with the
assurance that he would be given five minutes to speak out his heart.

When Kataria stopped, Tayeb went near the mike, only to be disappointed. One of
the members of the Kataria team stopped him: “It is our show. We will not permit
unofficial speakers to speak.”, he said, indicating, thereby, that the show had
been sold, not to promote NRI businesses but to advance communal agenda.

Tayeb Poonawala and the other Muslim family walked out. Unfortunately, no one,
even the people with secular credentials, followed him, to give a rebuff to the
communal platform.

Dr. Kewal Ramani also had his share of the wrath of communalism, for trying to
get Tayeb Poonawala just five minutes of defense. A lady came to him to put a
few words of doubt in Ramani’s head. “ I think, you did not drink your mother’s
milk. Perhaps, a Muslim woman in neighborhood breast-fed you.” To this, Dr.
Ramani replied: “What difference does it make? The woman who gave me milk shall
also be a mother. What has religion to do with it?” This infuriated the lady.
“Then your name shall be Mohammed Ramani.” DR. Ramani showed his usual patience,
smiled, but kept quiet.


The story ends here but the challenge begins, a challenge to all those who say
they believe in secularism and pluralism. Paying lip services and making
speeches will not do. Time has come to have a platform to penetrate into the NRI
community to tell them that we cannot live in segregation within ourselves.

We must tell all those who talk of expelling Muslims from India that instead of
conspiring to for the expulsion of our brethren, plan for the expulsion of evils
like caste-system from within the Hindu society and of the expulsion of poverty
from India.