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Tag: Communalism

“Growing intolerance”, and why Congress loves it

“Growing intolerance”, and why Congress loves it

Published by Rahul Roushan on December 1, 2015

Indian National Congress, the grand old party of India, suffered its worst ever electoral defeat in May 2014. Reduced to 44 seats, it was staring at a risk of being pushed to the margins if immediate corrective steps were not taken.

The reasons for its defeat were pretty obvious – corruption charges, anti-incumbency, lackadaisical leadership of Rahul Gandhi, and Modi wave.

However, if you analyze them as a pragmatist, these reasons don’t warrant any “corrective” step. They are transient in nature. For example, Congress could simply shrug them off with the following responses, and the party won’t really be wrong:

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Love Jihad – let’s not love this jihadA Hindi newspaper report on Love Jihad

Love Jihad – let’s not love this jihad

Published by Rahul Roushan on September 3, 2014

Much has been written and spoken about “Love Jihad” in the political and media circus, I mean, circles, so I thought one more by me won’t be such a bad idea.

Out of dozens of articles there, including a ridiculous “data backed” NDTV report, I would start with pointing out two articles to which I largely agree with. These are by R Jagannathan and were published on Firstpost.

The first one argues that the theory of Muslim groups targeting Hindu girls, in an organized way, to hurt or convert them is logically not sound, because it will be fraught with risks of failure when compared with other means of organized attempts at religious conversions i.e. Love Jihad is not a ‘practical’ jihad even if one thinks from the point of view of a jihadist.

The second one concedes that there could be small and isolated attempts, but Hindus first need to worry about their own failings – such as patriarchy, casteism, and lack of efforts to propagate Hinduism – and put their own house in order before losing sleep over something called “Love Jihad”.

As I said earlier, while I largely agree with these points, these still don’t show the complete picture.

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Three cheers for the “moral compass” (updated)Moral compass

Three cheers for the “moral compass” (updated)

Published by Rahul Roushan on August 4, 2014

When the alleged force feeding of a fasting Muslim man by a Shiv Sena MP happened, I felt that the religious angle was a spin given to the incident, and that the media was needlessly playing it up. Media showed it as an example of communal bigotry, when it appeared a case of hubris and hooliganism.

However, there was one benefit of doubt the media and the possessors of moral compasses could be given – the victim i.e. the canteen supervisor, in his complaint, had claimed that his religious sentiments were hurt.

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Moral compass and secular reportingMoral compass