From: selvakum@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (C.R.Selvakumar - Electrical Engineering)
Subject: Re: A few questions.
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 06:30:55 GMT

In article <1993Jan9.175957.24050@Princeton.EDU> deb@soil.Princeton.EDU (Arghya Deb) writes:
>
>I realize that to the clever and the knowing, all this will sound hopelessly
>naive, while to the worshippers of braggadocio it will seem terribly wimpish.
>But I cannot but ask a few questions of those on the net, who like their 
>counter-parts in India, seem intent on potraying the events in Ayodhya 
>as the beginnings of a new Indian renewal. 
>
>I should perhaps first state, that I personally do not 
>believe that the events on
>December 6 were a triumph of strategic planning on the part of the BJP/RSS. If
>it were truly so, then one must confess that the lumpenization of the Sangh
>parivar is complete, and there is little reason for hope.
>
>For if the destruction was preplanned, the BJP is guilty of breaking 
>promises and solemn undertakings to (a) Parliament (b) the National Integration
>Council (c) the Supreme Court. In fact they have purposefully and deliberately
>misled and deluded all the representative organizations of the Indian people.
>Furthermore, they have willfully engaged in an act, which they could be
>reasonably certain, would lead to widespread violence and the possible loss 
>of hundreds if not thousands of innocent lives. 
>
>It would also expose the entire leadership as a band of hollow men,
>whose commitment to their own ideology is of doubtful authenticity. Like many
                                                                    ^^^^^^^^^^
>others, I too supported the building of the Ram mandir and the relocation of
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>the Babri masjid, and all the reasoning that went behind it. But do these 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

            I too support building a Ram Mandir if people desire
            BUT NOT BY "RELOCATING" an existing Babri Masjid !
            You certainly sound pleasant and peaceful but I can NOT
            understand how you can say the chilling words "relocate" !
            You oppose violent opposition but support 'relocation' ?!
            Is there as any WISDOM in trying to build a Ram Mandir
            at the very site where a Mosque exists ? ( whether 
            worship is done there or not is not relevant; 
            it is a historical structure just like Belur Temple, Konarak etc.).
            Don't you agree that the words 'relocate' is mere
            euphimism for 'destruction' ? Don't you think it is
            utterly childish to request moving a structure a few
            hundred feet away ?!! Is this an ennobling religious
            sentiment ?!  If a Ram Mandir is built, say, some
            300 meters away, will not the God Ram accept it ?!
            It sounds downright silly to argue that Sri Ram was
            on the very spot !
            We call ourselves sane people and indulge in absolutely
            nonsensical 'fights' except that these fights give
            rise to hundreds of selective deaths and serious
            psycological and emotional trauma our people ( not
            invaders versus us !!) for decades and even
            centuries. There was an Amristar Temple, and now it is
            Babri Masjid.. Truly sad. 

            I can understand illiterate people in India buying the
            argument of 'relocating the masjid' given out by 
            'fundementalists', how can _you_ buy this argument ?!! 
            [ I've read most of
            Raj Bhatnagar's and Girish Bonde's articles..]
            


            
>nettors realize, that by supporting the violent destruction and hailing it
>as a great triumph, they are effectively saying that all that optimism and
>hope, the talk of Hindu ethos and national renewal, is nothing but a hoax 
>- a sham facade for rioting and plunder?
>
>I do not think so. I think they are hopelessly in the wrong. And whatever
>the polls may say, tomorrow, when calm returns, and people go back to leading
>their normal lives, when the distinction between good and evil reasserts 
>itself with it's customary starkness, when the mists have cleared, and the
>momentary elation over a supposed act of retribution for historical wrongs 
>looses it's novelty, people will start thinking. And when the bubble bursts,
>and the idea of a planned outrage takes hold in the public mind, it would be
>steady down-hill drive for the RSS movement.
>
>If it is so, it is reason for great sadness. It would be another proof
>that we Indians are not long distance runners. We are wont to destroy everything
>good and great, in our overwhelming concern with self-advancement, pettiness
>and deception. As the Congress today, bereft of all the high idealism of
>the freedom movement, a mere coalition of power-seekers held together by 
>a collective taste for loot and plunder, so the BJP twenty years hence. After
>Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, whither the BJP? Pramod Mahajan
>and Sadhvi Rithambara? 
>
>I hope and pray its not true.
>  
>
>
          I think the recent article by Arun Shourie in India Today
          depicts the situation correctly.

      - Selva