10-08-2004, 10:18 PM
PS: I found this on list , shld I have asked permission from him ?
First the response by Professor Ramesh Rao
==========================================
==============Reply Start=================
Dear Editor,
I read with dismay Arun Gandhi's rejoinder in the September 24, 2004
issue of India Abroad. He has not only strayed away from responding to
the question I raised originally in my essay "What If?" - which was,
"what if Sardar Patel had become Prime Minister instead of Jawaharlal
Nehru" - but has added to the list of allegations against groups and
individuals about whom he seems to knows little, or whom he wishes to
demonize for his own personal gains - as witnessed from the awards
showered on him by "secular" organizations.
Neither the RSS nor the BJP, as far as I know, have claimed to be the
"true saviors of Dalits and Harijans", as Arun Gandhi asserts. He
blames the conflict and violence between Hindus and Muslims in the
subcontinent only on the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha. He also accuses
the RSS of wanting to "ethnically cleanse the sub-continent" or to
"create hell whatever the consequences and blame it on others". He also
accuses the RSS and the BJP of making "it mandatory for followers to
wear caste affiliations on their sleeves and foreheads". These are
incendiary and false accusations, which I hope the RSS and the BJP will
respond to. Anyone else, who did not have such close affiliations to
the Mahatma, would have been taken to court for slander and libel. It
is unbecoming of Arun Gandhi, who is the president of the M. K. Gandhi
Institute for Nonviolence, to indulge in such malicious lies and
falsehoods and ugly partisanship.
Arun Gandhi raises a number of questions about why the assassination of
Gandhiji could not be thwarted despite the police having information
about plots to kill the Mahatma. He answers them by speculating that
the "...98 percent bureaucrats and politicians who inherited the
government and who belonged to the Brahmin and Kshatriya castes along
with Hindutva cohorts felt threatened by Gandhiji's stand on caste" and
implies that they willed or encouraged the assassination. If this is
the kind of rhetoric that the grandson of the Mahatma seeks to use to
bamboozle readers, I pity him. I only hope that before he writes his
next rejoinder he will contemplate on what his grandfather might have
adviced him on matters as grave as these.
Ramesh Rao
================ Reply End ===================
This must be the article by the HERO OF TRUE INDIANS
===================================================
Gandhi's Dream
I was wrong on the connection between the Moplah
riots and the Khilafat agitation (august 27). I reread my history book
and found the connection between the two. But history is not often an
accurate recording of events. The 9/11 tragedy will go down in history
books in this country as the most dastardly attacked by terrorists. It
will be partly right. But I will be surprised if historians delve in to
circumstances that provoked the 19 terrorists into an action.
The terrorists did not wake up on September 11 and
decide to hijack planes and bring down the world trade center. But, 50
to 100 years from now, that is what people will glean from history
books.
The events that led to the Moplah rebellion were not
recorded by the history. It got pegged to the khilafat, which was the
last straw.
It is erroneously described as Hindu Muslim disunity in
India which implies all Hindus Muslims fight each other. The reality is
there is a small group on either side indulges in this nefarious
activity. Many Hindus Muslims live in peace and harmony. This is what
gandhiji tried to encourage and the Rashtriya Swayaamsevak Sangh-Hindu
Mahasabha nexus tried to destroy.
Gandhiji's stand for unity between communities and
within the community was for moral and practical reasons. If fate
brought Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others together, it makes sense
to live harmony.
Sometimes he bent over backwards to achieve unity. But
he had wisdom and magnanimity to own up his mistakes.
How do you expect to preserve unity of Bharatmata by
fostering enmity between Hindus and Muslims? Many cherish the dream of
seeing India united again.
Gopal Godse showed me the urn containing nathuram's
ashes he hopes to immerse in the Sindhu River on unification. But how
can you achieve if you a foster hate?
Either the RSS expects to ethnically to clean the
subcontinent. Or the parivar is out to create hell whatever the
consequences and blame it on others.
Since the RSS and Bharatiya Janata Party project
themselves as true saviors of the Harijans and Dalits, why is it that
during the five-year tenure in power the BJP did nothing to eliminate
caste system?
Since the thrust of articles, never very subtle, seek
to project the RSS-BJP combine as true saviors of India, why have they
made it mandatory for followers to wear caste affiliations on their
sleeves and foreheads? Isn't caste directly responsible for keeping
Dalits at the bottom of the ladder? Or have they convinced Dalits
rightful place is living in the dust?
Why were eight attempts made on Gandhiji's life, at
least five of them by Godse and Narayan Apte from the late thirties,
soon after he took a firm stand on the Harijans question and denounced
the caste system as it was practiced? At the time Pakistan was not
discussed. The Hindu Muslim question was not a burning issue. Was it the
fear that Gandhi would cause a revolution and destroy the caste system?
How was the assassination allowed to succeed? How could
the police not catch Nathuram Godse and Apte, despite having their names
and addresses for 10 days? Were the British trained police so
inefficient as not able to trace people whose addresses and whereabouts
were provided by their accomplice, Madanlal Pahwa?
What was the nexus between those who master minded the
assassination and the government? Could it be that the 98percent
bureaucrats and politicians who inherited the government and who
belonged to the Brahmin and Kshatriya castes along with Hindutva cohorts
felt threatened by Gandhiji's stand on caste? Everyone concluded that
martyred Gandhi was better than a living Gandhi, whose agenda was
communal unity.
If the RSS Hindu Mahasabha were so committed to saving
Bharatmata in its pristine form, why was Gandhiji abandoned when he was
the lone voice against the partition? Why did the RSS-Hindu Mahasabha
were so committed to saving Bharatmata in its pristine form, why was
Gandhiji abandoned when he was the lone voice against partition? Why did
the RSS-Hindu Mahasabha not stand behind Gandhiji and say:'We are with
you because we too do not want to see our motherland partitioned?'
Why did they seditiously work pre-partition to foster
anger and violence between Hindus and Muslims and slink away when
Partition became a reality?
Arun Gandhi,
Memphis
First the response by Professor Ramesh Rao
==========================================
==============Reply Start=================
Dear Editor,
I read with dismay Arun Gandhi's rejoinder in the September 24, 2004
issue of India Abroad. He has not only strayed away from responding to
the question I raised originally in my essay "What If?" - which was,
"what if Sardar Patel had become Prime Minister instead of Jawaharlal
Nehru" - but has added to the list of allegations against groups and
individuals about whom he seems to knows little, or whom he wishes to
demonize for his own personal gains - as witnessed from the awards
showered on him by "secular" organizations.
Neither the RSS nor the BJP, as far as I know, have claimed to be the
"true saviors of Dalits and Harijans", as Arun Gandhi asserts. He
blames the conflict and violence between Hindus and Muslims in the
subcontinent only on the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha. He also accuses
the RSS of wanting to "ethnically cleanse the sub-continent" or to
"create hell whatever the consequences and blame it on others". He also
accuses the RSS and the BJP of making "it mandatory for followers to
wear caste affiliations on their sleeves and foreheads". These are
incendiary and false accusations, which I hope the RSS and the BJP will
respond to. Anyone else, who did not have such close affiliations to
the Mahatma, would have been taken to court for slander and libel. It
is unbecoming of Arun Gandhi, who is the president of the M. K. Gandhi
Institute for Nonviolence, to indulge in such malicious lies and
falsehoods and ugly partisanship.
Arun Gandhi raises a number of questions about why the assassination of
Gandhiji could not be thwarted despite the police having information
about plots to kill the Mahatma. He answers them by speculating that
the "...98 percent bureaucrats and politicians who inherited the
government and who belonged to the Brahmin and Kshatriya castes along
with Hindutva cohorts felt threatened by Gandhiji's stand on caste" and
implies that they willed or encouraged the assassination. If this is
the kind of rhetoric that the grandson of the Mahatma seeks to use to
bamboozle readers, I pity him. I only hope that before he writes his
next rejoinder he will contemplate on what his grandfather might have
adviced him on matters as grave as these.
Ramesh Rao
================ Reply End ===================
This must be the article by the HERO OF TRUE INDIANS
===================================================
Gandhi's Dream
I was wrong on the connection between the Moplah
riots and the Khilafat agitation (august 27). I reread my history book
and found the connection between the two. But history is not often an
accurate recording of events. The 9/11 tragedy will go down in history
books in this country as the most dastardly attacked by terrorists. It
will be partly right. But I will be surprised if historians delve in to
circumstances that provoked the 19 terrorists into an action.
The terrorists did not wake up on September 11 and
decide to hijack planes and bring down the world trade center. But, 50
to 100 years from now, that is what people will glean from history
books.
The events that led to the Moplah rebellion were not
recorded by the history. It got pegged to the khilafat, which was the
last straw.
It is erroneously described as Hindu Muslim disunity in
India which implies all Hindus Muslims fight each other. The reality is
there is a small group on either side indulges in this nefarious
activity. Many Hindus Muslims live in peace and harmony. This is what
gandhiji tried to encourage and the Rashtriya Swayaamsevak Sangh-Hindu
Mahasabha nexus tried to destroy.
Gandhiji's stand for unity between communities and
within the community was for moral and practical reasons. If fate
brought Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others together, it makes sense
to live harmony.
Sometimes he bent over backwards to achieve unity. But
he had wisdom and magnanimity to own up his mistakes.
How do you expect to preserve unity of Bharatmata by
fostering enmity between Hindus and Muslims? Many cherish the dream of
seeing India united again.
Gopal Godse showed me the urn containing nathuram's
ashes he hopes to immerse in the Sindhu River on unification. But how
can you achieve if you a foster hate?
Either the RSS expects to ethnically to clean the
subcontinent. Or the parivar is out to create hell whatever the
consequences and blame it on others.
Since the RSS and Bharatiya Janata Party project
themselves as true saviors of the Harijans and Dalits, why is it that
during the five-year tenure in power the BJP did nothing to eliminate
caste system?
Since the thrust of articles, never very subtle, seek
to project the RSS-BJP combine as true saviors of India, why have they
made it mandatory for followers to wear caste affiliations on their
sleeves and foreheads? Isn't caste directly responsible for keeping
Dalits at the bottom of the ladder? Or have they convinced Dalits
rightful place is living in the dust?
Why were eight attempts made on Gandhiji's life, at
least five of them by Godse and Narayan Apte from the late thirties,
soon after he took a firm stand on the Harijans question and denounced
the caste system as it was practiced? At the time Pakistan was not
discussed. The Hindu Muslim question was not a burning issue. Was it the
fear that Gandhi would cause a revolution and destroy the caste system?
How was the assassination allowed to succeed? How could
the police not catch Nathuram Godse and Apte, despite having their names
and addresses for 10 days? Were the British trained police so
inefficient as not able to trace people whose addresses and whereabouts
were provided by their accomplice, Madanlal Pahwa?
What was the nexus between those who master minded the
assassination and the government? Could it be that the 98percent
bureaucrats and politicians who inherited the government and who
belonged to the Brahmin and Kshatriya castes along with Hindutva cohorts
felt threatened by Gandhiji's stand on caste? Everyone concluded that
martyred Gandhi was better than a living Gandhi, whose agenda was
communal unity.
If the RSS Hindu Mahasabha were so committed to saving
Bharatmata in its pristine form, why was Gandhiji abandoned when he was
the lone voice against the partition? Why did the RSS-Hindu Mahasabha
were so committed to saving Bharatmata in its pristine form, why was
Gandhiji abandoned when he was the lone voice against partition? Why did
the RSS-Hindu Mahasabha not stand behind Gandhiji and say:'We are with
you because we too do not want to see our motherland partitioned?'
Why did they seditiously work pre-partition to foster
anger and violence between Hindus and Muslims and slink away when
Partition became a reality?
Arun Gandhi,
Memphis