{"id":93031,"date":"2013-06-26T00:01:38","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T18:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=93031"},"modified":"2013-06-30T19:03:05","modified_gmt":"2013-06-30T13:33:05","slug":"stirring-the-pot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/stirring-the-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"Stirring The Pot"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hameed Abdul Karim<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Hameed Abdul Karim<\/p><\/div>\n

If anybody was looking for reasons why India split into two creating Pakistan and later Bangladesh or why Kashmir wants to be free of Indian rule, Ram Madhav of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) provides the perfect answer in his pro- Bodu Bala Sena<\/a><\/span> (BBS) article that also contained intimidating views on Muslims that appeared in the state owned Daily News of Monday 17th<\/sup> June 2013. Ram Madhav\u2019s article is essentially for sections of a Hindu audience in India pandering to the strongly cultivated prejudices that have been created in their minds against Islam and Christianity. The Hindus in Sri Lanka would be bewildered over Madhav\u2019s claims about the Bodu Bala Sena and maybe laugh away his white washing of this anti-minorities organisation.<\/p>\n

Ram Madhav is the national spokesman for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which is a right-wing paramilitary Hindu nationalist group. It has been criticised as an extremist and a paramilitary group not too different from the BBS.<\/p>\n

The RSS was banned in India when Nathuram Godse who was a member of the organisation assassinated Mahatma Gandhi<\/a><\/span> and also after the group participated in the demolition of the Barbri Masjid.<\/p>\n

In his anti Muslim and anti Christian harangue Madhav extols the BBS as if the racist group was a gift to mankind. Erudite Sri Lanka Buddhist monks<\/a><\/span>, intellectual and even some politicians have taken up cudgels against the BBS as a movement that contravenes Gautama Buddha\u2019s teachings.\u00a0 The Dalai Lama called upon extremist Buddhists in both Sri Lanka and Myanmar not to harass minorities in their countries. But of course such discourse will fly in the face of RSS zealots like Ram Madhav. To people like him Muslims and Christians must be taught lessons at regular intervals to show them their respective places in India and Sri Lanka as adherents of \u2018foreign\u2019 faiths not suitable for home grown ideologies. Well, he flunks on that score, doesn\u2019t he? Buddhism is a \u2018foreign\u2019 faith in Sri Lanka having originated in India.<\/p>\n

At one point of time Buddhism held sway over the length and breadth of the subcontinent and virtually all \u2018Indians\u2019 were Buddhist. It was at this point that the Brahmins struck back. Over a period of time they ensured that Buddhism was wiped out and once again their ideology of Brahmanism took the place of the dominant force. And here we have an activist of the RSS, the leadership of which is almost Brahmin, crying crocodile tears for Buddhism in Sri Lanka! For a detailed report on how Brahmins replaced Buddhism with their dogma google \u2018Disappearance of Buddhism from India \u2013 an Untold Story by Naresh Kumar available on \u2018Sikh Spectrum\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Brahmins tried the same tactics with Islam, Christianity and Sikhism and continue to do so to this day. There have been no less than 45,000 racist attacks against Muslims in India since the partition of the sub continent. The Shah report gives details of how Muslims are discriminated in India and how racism has been institutionalised in the Mahatma\u2019s land. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Modi <\/strong><\/p>\n

It is now an open secret that Narendra Modi of the Bharata Janata Party (BJP) who personally supervised the anti-Muslim riot in his home state of Gujarat is to become Prime Minister of India. Just reward for his long anti Muslim campaign.<\/p>\n

There are more than 170 million Muslims in India and to this day they are referred to as a \u2018minority\u2019. What we have in India is minority and majority community politics with a liberal sprinkling of platitudes like \u2018democracy\u2019 or \u2018liberalism\u2019 \u2018freedom of speech\u2019 or \u2018justice\u2019 or \u2018secularism\u2019 or \u2018liberty\u2019 or \u2018values\u2019 which don\u2019t mean a thing in India\u2019s communal system of government. If clich\u00e9s meant anything Narendra Modi should be in jail, and not a Prime Ministerial aspirant nor the Chief Minister of Gujarat. But then in the \u2018largest democracy in the world\u2019 the absurd often passes off as democracy.<\/p>\n

Numbers game<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the sub continent had not been partitioned there would be more than 500 million Muslims in India today. The tragedy would have been that they would still be called a \u2018minority\u2019 in the numbers game in India version of democracy. Their concerns and grievances would never have been taken into account because of their minority status.<\/p>\n

Despite this reality we have RSS\u2019s Ram Madhav preaching to us the \u2018virtues\u2019 of the BBS whilst trying his best, in true RAW style, to carve a niche in the BBS for India and RAW to operate under their\u00a0 patronage to promote Mother India\u2019s hegemony in the region. Knowing BBS, they would gladly support Madhav\u2019s regional campaign against Muslims and Christians. After all there has to be a strong affinity between the BBS and India\u2019s RSS on account of their mutual dislike of minorities and \u2018foreign\u2019 religions.<\/p>\n

Halaal and hypocrisy <\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course no anti-Muslim diatribe would be complete these days without the writer pointing out to the \u2018halaal<\/a><\/span>\u2019 controversy that raged for weeks until recently. And so Ram Madhav also refers to the BBS \u2018victory\u2019 on this issue in such glowing terms that will make readers imagine that Muslims were the villains in this saga.<\/p>\n

Be that as it may, In India the \u2018halaal\u2019 industry is flourishing. India became the largest exporter of beef overtaking Australia, Argentina and New Zealand in 2012.\u00a0 In the land where cows are considered sacred and sometimes even worshipped, India became the number one country in cattle slaughter according to a Times of India report which also said that India\u2019s beef exports had increased by 44% in four years. The same report, quoting Surendra Kumar Ranjan director of Uttar Pradesh based Hind Agro Industries, says \u2018our meat is lean and cheaper. We supply halaal meat which is preferred in Gulf countries\u2019. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Magnificent mosque <\/strong><\/p>\n

The writer refers to \u2018a new magnificent mosque coming up in Colombo\u2019. This is not a new mosque but one of the oldest one in Sri Lanka. It\u2019s also on the tourist map as the \u2018red mosque\u2019. What\u2019s happening there is that the mosque is being renovated and expanded to accommodate more people whilst maintaining its traditional architecture. For Madhav to say it\u2019s a \u2018magnificent new mosque\u2019 is a clear admission that he has not checked on his facts. But then trivial issues like facts or truths are mere irritants and highly irrelevant for RSS operators like Ram Madhav when their objective is to provoke one community against another.<\/p>\n

Quoting contested statistics Madhav says the Muslim population has gone up by almost two fold but conveniently fails to say that the Muslim population in the north had been reduced to nothing due the LTTE\u2019s expulsions. Yes, the very same LTTE<\/a><\/span> that India gave birth to.<\/p>\n

Pakistan<\/strong><\/p>\n

And of course no provocative and scare mongering article by RSS types like Madhav is free from claims that Pakistan is entrenched in Sri Lanka with its ISI running covert operations. In the recent past many stories in the print media have been planted to make such unsubstantiated claims. There was one that claimed that al-Qaida was training Muslim \u2018terrorists\u2019 in the east. This is the run of the mill disinformation campaign that spy agencies like RAW carry out prior to destabilising a nation. \u00a0None of these stories have been proven to be true. But like stated before, truth is not necessary when all one wants to do is stir the pot which one suspects is Ram Madhav\u2019s chief motive in his white washing of the BBS where he claims, in a tenuous balancing act, that its activities might cause \u2018racial tensions\u2019. It\u2019s like as if he is hoping for such a scenario. If that is the case then shame on you, Ram Madhav.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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