Does Afzal Guru deserve to die?

~~By Syed Zafar Mehdi

Members of All India Anti Terrorist Front celebrating the execution of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab the lone surviving terrorist of 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in Amritsar on Wednesday. (PTI photo)

To hang or not to hang! The debate over barbarous capital punishment still lingers on. Many civil rights activists, lawyers, and liberal intellectuals have been arguing against it on humanitarian grounds for a while now. A potent argument against capital punishment is that it has no deterrence effect, with many countries already doing away with it. As sane minds would argue, sanctity to life should prevail over ‘eye for an eye’ approach. But legal hawks vociferously maintain that it is warranted in ‘rarest of rare crimes’. But, what constitutes these ‘rarest of rare’ cases, and who will decide that?

As talk veers to death penalties, the intriguing case of Afzal Guru flashes to mind. Guru, a Kashmiri, is on a death row over his alleged involvement in 2002 Parliament attack case. He was given capital punishment to ‘satisfy the collective conscience of society’, rather than on legal merits. His case is often in news. The last time it created furore when a firebrand legislator in J&K unsuccessfully moved a resolution in state assembly seeking clemency for him. J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had also tweeted his support for Guru, after a similar resolution was passed by Tamil Nadu assembly for the killers of Rajiv Gandhi. The pro-India political parties in J&K are divided over Guru. Congress and BJP want him hanged but ruling National Conference (NC) and main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are in favour of clemency.

As his mercy petition lies pending in corridors of Rashtrapati Bhawan, he has become a favourite whipping boy for right wing forces to score brownie points over their political adversaries. But, as civil activists argue, does his case fall under “rarest of rare” categories? Does he deserve to die like this? Or more precisely, as Nirmalangshu Mukherji puts it, “Should Guru die?” (Economic Political Weekly, 17 Sept 2005).

Mukherji believes it would be a “travesty of justice to hang Guru “. A noted Human Rights campaigner Nandita Haksar rightly affirms, “We haven’t even heard Guru ‘s story” (Yahoo news, 30 Sept 2006). Death penalty is awarded in only ‘rarest of rare’ crimes, where crime is established beyond any iota of doubt, after a fair trial in accordance to the due process of law and international standards of human rights. But, in Guru’s case, rule was not applied, as it ought to. “Guru ‘s death penalty violates Supreme Court’s own guidelines, which say that capital punishment should be awarded in ‘rarest of rare crimes’ which doesn’t apply to Guru,” notes activist and columnist Praful Bidwai (News International, 21, Oct, 06).

There are whole lot of loopholes and glaring doubts which merit serious contemplation. Death sentence is doled out to accused only after strictest observance of free trail. So, did Guru get a free trail? He was denied worthwhile legal assistance at trail court—a crucial stage where evidences are produced and examined, which later becomes basis for court’s verdict. Right to legal protection is an inherent right. It is clearly enshrined in UN Declaration of Human Rights or Universal Declaration. Constitution of India also entitles a citizen with right to be defended in court of law.

Prosecution had accused him for being “facilitator”, and not directly involved in the crime. Its case stood wholly on “circumstantial evidence”, for which death penalty becomes grossly disproportionate. Guru was sentenced to death by trail court on 18 December, 02, and later the sentence was upheld through appeals in High Court and Apex court respectively. But Colon Gonsalves, a senior Supreme Court advocate, who defended Guru at High Court, has a valid argument to make. He says in his report, “When I was brought in to defend Guru in High Court and I studied the trail court proceedings, it was clear that apart from appreciation of evidence, his case rested on two grave infirmities. First was the media trail, which rendered doing justice to Guru impossible, and second was trail court, which had denied him a lawyer”.

It won’t be exaggeration to state that Guru ‘s case is based on unsubstantiated charges and concocted evidence put together by investigating agencies, having their own axe to grind. As per his own admission, Special task force personnel ruthlessly tormented him. Confessions were extracted from him under duress, after being tortured and his family threatened of dire consequences.

The notorious Special cell of Delhi Police used media to brand him a “terrorist”, even before trail. He was forced to confess to crime before media. It followed the media trail in rather brazen fashion, including a film broadcast on Zee TV, apparently previewed and approved by the then P.M himself. It was one of the prime factors in prejudicing the outcome of the trail. As noted legal hawk and constitutional expert, Ram Jethmalani puts it, “To cause prejudice in the minds of public against a person standing trail is worst kind of contempt” (Tehelka, 28 Oct 06).

Delhi High court acknowledged that investigating agencies had fabricated evidence against him, yet it went ahead to uphold the “unfair” verdict against him. Supreme Court was moved but it too rejected the appeal on account of “procedural irregularities” in obtaining it and yet upheld the judgment on nothing more than derisory circumstantial evidence. It though admitted that his direct association with any terrorist outfit couldn’t be proved beyond doubt.

Guru’s case doesn’t meet international standards of a fair trail. Taking all the serious loopholes into account, it violates Article 7, 10, 14, 17 of International Covenant on Civil and Political rights. India being a signatory of the covenant is obliged to protect the rights of citizens guaranteed therein. But has it?

Firebrand activist and author Arundathi Roy adeptly vents her ire in following words, “I joined the protest demo at Jantar Mantar against Guru’s death sentence because I believe his is only a pawn in a very sinister game. He is not the Dragon, as he is being made out to be, he is only dragon’s footprint, and if dragon’s footprint is made to ‘become extinct’, we will never know who the dragon was” (Outlook, Oct 30, 06)

Going ahead with the death verdict would be an absolute miscarriage of justice. As well-known human rights activist Ram Puniyani notes, “Guru’s hanging will reinforce the perception of two set of legal norms prevalent in a society, polarizing fast on communal lines” (Combat Law, Nov-Dec, 06). There is a dire need of fresh trial into Guru ‘s case, where he gets chance to put his side of story before court.

“Has anyone ever heard of a death sentence on a man who was undefended at a trail? This monstrous miscarriage of justice warrants re-trail” believes legal expert and Columnist A.G Noorani (Hindustan Times, 24 Oct 06). He is echoed by another legal luminary Ram Jethmalani, who too believes, “The man was very poorly defended, there is no doubt” (Tehelka, 28 Oct, 06).

So far there is no concrete, foolproof, fully substantiated evidence showing Guru ‘s direct involvement in December 13, 2001 Parliament attack case. A small minority of intellectuals, lawyers, and activists have been vigorously pursuing his case, dubbing the death sentence against him as mockery of justice.

Currently his clemency petition lies pending in Rashtrapati Bhawan. Perhaps aware of the repercussions, Kalam played safe, so did Patil. Now, it is over to incumbent Pranab Mukherjee. Guru, disillusioned with the system of justice, wants death. However, We the people want a final verdict be taken without further delay, keeping the legal and humanitarian interests ahead of narrow nationalistic and parochial interests.

Courtesy: http://liveaxle.wordpress.com/

Sen. Brown stands firm against death penalty

Sen. Edna Brown

An Ohio state senator from Toledo said she would not be deterred from her desire to abolish the death penalty in the state, even after the sentence of death last week for convicted killer Anthony Belton and calls by some in the public for the penalty to be carried out in his case.

Edna Brown, a Democrat who recently launched a legislative effort to end capital punishment, said she does not want to get involved in individual cases, such as the murder of store clerk Matthew Dugan by Belton during a 2008 robbery.

"I did not follow the trial, but my concern is not with individual cases," Ms. Brown said. "My concern is with the process and possibility, as I have said previously, of an innocent person being executed. Whether someone is innocent or guilty is not where I stand. The death penalty should be eliminated."

Ms. Brown said she did not watch surveillance video that shows Anthony Belton shooting Mr. Dugan. The video was used as evidence against Belton, 26, who was found guilty by a three-judge panel Wednesday of aggravated murder and two counts of aggravated robbery as well as of capital specifications and gun specifications.

Ms. Brown said the death penalty has not been a deterrent.

"Nothing in the world will prevent people from committing murder," she said. "We have the death penalty now and it has not prevented murder."

She said she also does not fear that a governor would ever release a convicted murderer such as Belton.

"I don't think that possibility would exist here in Ohio," Ms. Brown said. "There would have to be very, very extenuating circumstances and other reasons, so I don't see that possibility."

Ms. Brown said a higher homicide rate by young African-Americans males is probably connected to higher levels of poverty, but she declined to discuss the issue at length, saying she was not an expert on the matter. Belton is black.

Homicide offense rates for blacks were more than seven times higher than the rates for whites, according to studies by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Ms. Brown said she also understood the desire for some, such as people employed in stores like the one where Mr. Dugan, 34, was gunned down to favor the death penalty.

"They are entitled to their opinions," Ms. Brown said. "I don't wish to get into a discussion about that particular case. My concern is the process."

Ms. Brown is a sponsor of Senate Bill 270, which would strike references to capital punishment and the death penalty from state law. It is not expected to move within the Republican-controlled Senate.

Ms. Brown has said the most she hopes for now is additional hearings.

Courtesy: ToledoBlade.com

Executions in the US, 2012, till Oct, 2012

January

1. On January 5 , 2012, Gary Welch  was executed in Oklahoma    
2. On January 26, 2012, Rodrigo Hernandez was executed in Texas 

February

1. On February 8, 2012, Edwin Turner   was  executed in Mississippi  
2. On February 15, 2012, Robert Waterhouse was executed in Florida    
3. On February 29, 2012, Robert Moorman was executed in Arizona    
4. On February 29, 2012, George Rivas was executed   in  Texas   

March

1.  On March 7, 2012, Keith Thurmond  was executed in Texas
2. On March 8, 2012, Robert Towery was executed  in Arizona
3.  On March 20, 2012, Larry Puckett was  executed in  Mississippi
4. On March 22, 2012, William Mitchell was executed in Mississippi
5.  On March 28, 2012, Jesse Hernandez was executed in Texas

April

1. On April 12, 2012, David Gore was executed in Florida
2. On April 18, 2012, Mark Wiles was executed in Ohio
3. On April 20, 2012, Shannon Johnson was executed  in Delaware 
4. On April 25, 2012, Thomas Kemp was  executed in Arizona 
5. On April 26, 2012,  Beunka Adams was   executed in Texas

May

1. On May 1, 2012,  Michael Selsor was executed in Oklahoma

June

1. On June 5, 2012,  Henry Jackson was executed in Mississippi  
2. On June 12, 2012,  Richard Leavitt  was  executed in Idaho     
3. On June 12, 2012,  Jan Brawner was executed in Mississippi
4.  On June 20, 2012, Gary Simmons was executed in Mississippi
5. On June 27, 2012, Samuel Lopez was executed  in Arizona

July

1. On July 18, 2012, Yokamon Hearn was executed in Texas

August

1. On August 7, 2012,  Marvin Wilson was executed in Texas
2. On August 8, 2012, Daniel Cook  was executed in Arizona
3. On August 14, 2012, Michael Hooper was executed in Oklahoma

September

1. On September 20, 2012, Donald Palmer was executed in Ohio
2. On September 20, 2012,  Robert Harris was executed in Texas
3. On September 25, 2012, Cleve Foster was executed in Texas

October

1. On October 10, 2012,  Jonathan Green was executed in Texas
2. On  October 14, 2012, Eric Robert was executed in South Dakota
3. On October 24, 2012, Bobby Hines was executed in Texas
4. On October 28, 2012 Donald Moeller  was executed in South Dakota
5. On October 31, 2012, Donnie Roberts was executed in Texas

Source: www.prodeathpenalty.com

Screams, Flames among Horrors of Botched US Executions
By Lucile Malandain

WASHINGTON — US executions are meant to be clinical and humane, but for some they end up resembling medieval torture, complete with the smell of burning flesh, screams, and scenes so gruesome that witnesses faint.
"We put animals to death more humanely," reporter Carla McClain said of a 1992 execution she witnessed, in which Donald Eugene Harding writhed and thrashed in an Arizona gas chamber for over 10 minutes before dying.
Last month, Romell Brown became only the second man to leave a US execution chamber alive, after 18 failed attempts to administer the lethal injection.
Authorities in Ohio decided to halt his execution after officials spent two hours trying to inject him with lethal chemicals.
Many of those executed in the United States in the last 25 years were not so lucky, suffering through executions in which flesh caught on fire, blood saturated shirts, and witnesses watched and listened as the condemned convulsed and screamed with pain.
In 1999, Florida Supreme Court Justice Leander Shaw reacted with horror to pictures of Allen Lee Davis, who was put to death by electric chair.
"The color photos of Davis depict a man who -- for all appearances -- was brutally tortured to death by the citizens of Florida," Shaw wrote.
Davis had been strapped into an electric chair especially designed to fit his 350-pound frame. As he was electrocuted, but before he was pronounced dead, blood poured from his mouth, soaking his white shirt and oozing through the buckle holes of the strap holding him down.
Michael Radelet, a professor at the University of Colorado, worked with the Death Penalty Information Center to collect testimony on more than 40 botched instances from the witnesses required to be present at executions.
Horror stories have emerged about all the execution methods commonly used in the United States, including the electric chair, lethal injection and gas chamber, with most of the disasters due to human error.
In 1983 in Alabama, a first jolt of electricity caused the electrode attached to John Evans' leg to catch fire. Smoke and sparks also came from under the hood placed over his head, near where an electrode was strapped to his left temple.
A second jolt was administered, but despite the smoke and smell of burning flesh, doctors discovered Evans' heart was still beating and applied a third jolt that finally killed him after 14 minutes.
Two years later, in Indiana, William Vandiver received five separate jolts of electricity over the course of 17 minutes before his heart stopped.
Jesse Joseph Tafero was sentenced to death by electric chair in Florida in 1990, but a synthetic sponge that was used during his execution caught fire, causing six-inch flames to erupt from his head.
Sentenced to death by gas chamber in Mississippi in 1983, Jimmy Lee Gray had the misfortune to be put to death by an executioner who later admitted he was drunk. Gray's gasps and moans so horrified observers that the witness room was cleared by officials.
In recent years, several lawsuits have challenged the lethal injection as "cruel," but it continues to be used by most US states practicing the death penalty and the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality in 2008.
But for Bennie Demps, who spent 33 minutes of agony as execution technicians tried to find a back-up vein that could support an alternate intravenous drip in case the first one failed, the pain was excruciating.
"They butchered me back there. I was in a lot of pain. They cut me in the groin, they cut me in the leg. I was bleeding profusely. This is not an execution, it is murder," he said in his final statement.
In Angel Diaz's case, in Florida in 2006, a single dose of the lethal cocktails that anesthetize, paralyze and then stop the recipient's heart was not enough. The first injection went through his vein and out the other side, dispersing the chemicals into his muscles, forcing a second dose to be given.
At times, the scenes have been gruesome enough to physically affect observers. In 1989, in Texas, which holds the record for the most US executions, a male witness fainted after watching Stephen McCoy's violent writhing.
Some of the most recent horror stories come from Ohio, where Broom's execution was halted.
"It don't work! It don't work," yelled a sobbing Joseph Clark in May 2006, as the vein that executioners had worked 22 minutes to find collapsed while the chemicals were being administered.
A year later, Ohio authorities took two hours to successfully find veins and administer Christopher Newton the lethal injection. The process took so long, he was authorized to take a bathroom break.
The only other person to have survived execution in the United States was young black man named Willie Francis who survived a Louisiana electric chair in the 1940s. He was later put to death on a second attempt.

Courtesy: AFP

Kasab hanging to have adverse impact on Indians in Pakistan jails, says Kuldeep Nayar

Rohtak: Veteran journalist and former Rajya Sabha MP Kuldeep Nayar has justified the hanging of Pakistan terrorist and convict in Mumbai attack case in 2008, Azmal Kasab who was hanged to death in Yerwada jail in Pune on Wednesday morning. Addressing a 'Meet-the-Press' programme organised jointly by the Haryana Union of Journalists (registered under the Trade Union Act) and the Press Club in Rohtak, Nayar said "It's a delayed but justified decision. It will have positive reaction from India but draw counter reaction from the neighbouring country".
He said that Indians languishing in the Pak jails could be in more trouble after the hanging as they are likely to lose any sympathetic consideration for their release from the Pak authorities. Asked about the fate of another terror mastermind Afzal Guru who is also on the death row like Kasab for many years, Nayar stated that his fate is linked with the Kashmir problem which is perhaps adding to the quandary of the Indian government in taking a decision over his fate. The veteran journalist also expressed concern over the changing face of journalism in India.
"With most of the Media groups being owned by the individuals/corporate entities, the authorities of the journalist as well as editor has been eroded to some extent. Still the media have immense impact and credibility among the masses", he said. While advocating for in-house mechanism to curb malpractices in the media, Nayar stated that he had proposed to the Editors' Guild of India to make it mandatory for newspaper editors to declare their assets but it was turned down. Haryana union of Journalists' district president Tarif Sharma, Press Club Rohtak president Manoj Prabhakar and other members of the two organizations attended the press conference.

Courtesy: The Times of India.

Kasab execution represents Indian death penalty backslide

The execution of Ajmal Kasab for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks undoes much of the progress India has made over the death penalty, Amnesty International said.
Kasab, a Pakistani national, was hanged this morning at Yerawada prison in Pune city. He was convicted in 2010 by a special court for his involvement in the Mumbai attacks during which more than 150 people were killed and in excess of 250 were injured.
The more than 80 charges he was found guilty of,included committing acts of terrorism and criminal conspiracy to commit murder.
"Today's executions means India has taken a significant step backwards and joined that minority of countries that are still executing," said VK Shashikumar, Programmes Head at Amnesty International India.
Ajmal Kasab’s death sentence was upheld by India’s Supreme Court on 29 August 2012, and his mercy petition was reportedly rejected by the President on 5 November.
Prior to Kasab’s filing of his petition, eleven mercy petitions from persons on death row were pending before the President.
Ajmal Kasab’s lawyer and family in Pakistan were not informed of the imminent execution, in violation of international standards on the use of the death penalty.
“We recognize the gravity of the crimes for which Ajmal Kasab was convicted, and sympathise with the victims of these acts and their families, but the death penalty is the ultimate cruel and inhuman form of punishment,” said Shashikumar.
“We are also deeply disconcerted both by the unusual speed with which his mercy petition was rejected, as well as the secrecy that surrounded his execution.”
The resumption of executions in India comes just two days after the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) Human Rights Committee adopted a draft resolution calling for a global moratorium on the death penalty, with a view to completely abolishing it.
The UNGA vote confirms the global trend moving firmly towards an abolition of the death penalty.

Courtesy:  Amnesty International
Photo, Edition: Suman Mukhopadhyay

India should end death penalty: rights group

Hours after Pakistani Ajmal Kasab was hanged in Pune, Human Rights Watch urged India to remove the death penalty from its legal framework.
"The hanging of Kasab marks a concerning end to the country's moratorium on capital punishment," said a statement from the US-based rights
related stories
"Instead of resorting to the use of execution to address heinous crime, India should join the rising ranks of nations that have taken the decision to remove the death penalty from their legal frameworks," it added.
Nearly four years after the Mumbai terror attack, Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving Pakistani gunman, was hanged to death at the Yerawada central prison in Pune this morning in an operation shrouded in secrecy.
25-year old Kasab was hanged at 7.30 am, Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil said in Mumbai shortly after the hanging.
Pakistan government was kept informed about the execution.
The execution in the Mumbai attack trial brought closure to many in the audacious strike by 10 terrorists of Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in which 166 people were killed. Nine LeT men were killed during the 60-hour siege which began on the night of November 26, 2008.
The prison authorities remained tight-lipped about the details of hanging performed in a well-guarded secret operation amid reports that Kasab did not have any death wish.
Kasab was executed after he exhausted all legal remedies available to escape the noose with President Pranab Mukherjee rejecting his mercy plea following the advice of the Union home ministry.

Courtesy: The Hindustan Times (With inputs from IANS)

Photo, Edition: Suman Mukhopadhyay

'Kasab was intelligent, had picked up Marathi during trial'

If he was intelligent then why would the government of India have to Murder him? Is it to prove how great a country we are or we lack the will treat a convict with more compassion??!! The Buddhist tradition: "Compassion is that which makes the heart of the good move at the pain of others. It crushes and destroys the pain of others. Thus, it is called compassion. It is called compassion because it shelters and embraces the distressed"~~Dp.A.193. Are most of our politicians and citizens Savage and Barbaric?

Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, who was hanged today, had during the 26/11 trial surprised the Judge, policemen and court officers with his humour and grasping power so much so that he picked up Marathi and even conversed in it with everyone around him.
His quick grasp of local language Marathi in the court had caught the attention of all those present during the 26/11 trial in the specially made court at Arthur Road prison.
"Nahin, Nahin, Taap Nahin (No, No, I don't have fever)," he had once said in Marathi in the court three years ago when the staff enquired from him whether he was unwell.
Ever since the trial began in May 2009, Kasab, a fourth standard dropout of an Urdu medium school, had been keenly observing the proceedings and picked up bits of English and even Marathi as witnesses, lawyers and the judge spoke in those languages although the evidence was recorded in English. "Tumhi Nighun Ja (You may leave)," were the first words in Marathi which Kasab learnt as Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam would utter these to him after the court proceedings.

Kasab was a fan of Bollywood singer Mukesh Chand Mathur : Lawyer

Pakistani gunman, Ajmal Kasab, who was hanged on Wednesday, was a fan of legendary playback singer late Mukesh and used to sing his favourite tunes during legal interviews, his lawyer Amin Solkar said today.
"'Hum chod chale is mehfil ko, yaad aaye to kabhie mat rona' (I am leaving this world, if you remember me please do not cry) rendered by Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab in jail keeps ringing in my ears," Solkar said.
"Kasab often used to render this song whenever we met for legal conference and interview at Arthur Road jail here," said Solkar on hearing about Kasab's execution at Pune's Yerwada prison here.

Courtesy: www.sify.com 
Photo, Edition: Suman Mukhopadhyay

Driven by poverty, Kasab took to crime and jihad

What did we gain, by this state sponsored Murder? There are 100 different ways to punish the guilty.......So why a civilized country should have Capital Punishment?

It was his father's refusal to buy him new clothes on Eid that forced a miffed Ajmal Amir Kasab to quit home, take to crime and then embrace jihad, leading to his death in India.
Until then, the now 25−year−old Kasab −− who was hanged in Pune Wednesday for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack −− led a simple life in an impoverished part of Pakistan's Punjab province.
He belonged to a poor family. His father was a food vendor while a brother was a labourer in Lahore.
It was in 2005 that Kasab decided to quit home after quarrelling with his father who could not provide him new clothes because of poverty.
The young man soon took to petty crime and graduated to armed robbery. A chance encounter with Jama'at−ud−Da'wah, the political wing of Lashkar−e−Taiba, changed his life for ever.
It did not take long for him to sign up for training with the bitterly anti−India Lashkar.

Kasab nervous but quiet before execution: Jail officer

People in Ahmedabad shouted slogans and held banners rejoicing over the execution of Ajmal Kasab on Wednesday.

Minutes before his execution in Pune's Yerwada prison today, Pakistani gunman Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab appeared to be nervous but was quiet and offered prayers, a jail official said.

'From his body language, we could make out that he was very nervous. However, he remained quiet before he was taken out from his cell for the hanging,' the official said.

Kasab had also offered prayers and asked if his family was informed in advance about the hanging to which jail authorities replied in the affirmative, the official said.

Nearly four years after the Mumbai terror attack, Kasab, the sole surviving Pakistani gunman, was hanged this morning at Yerawada central prison here in a top secret operation. 

Courtesy: www.sify.com

A Demagogue Freezes Mumbai for the Last Time
By Chandrahas Choudhury Nov 19, 2012

 Bottomline: A man is made up of both good and bad qualities and therefore only portraying the negative side of him/her, will surely make us blind. This is what this article does mostly.

Finally, after ailing for several years, the maverick politician Bal Thackeray passed away in Mumbai on Nov. 17 at the age of 86, bringing the city to a grinding halt.
For three decades, he had enjoyed the power, when piqued or provoked (and this was often), to bring to a standstill the city of Bombay, which he succeeded in renaming Mumbai. In 1966, he set up the Shiv Sena (literally, "the Army of Shiva"), a political party with a nativist ideology and the spirit of a vigilante squad. He stayed the course until he finally won power in state elections in Maharashtra in 1995.
Yet he held a certain contempt for the spirit and procedures of democracy, and never took up a post in government, preferring instead to rule by "remote control" -- his own phrase -- through a proxy chief minister. He liked to present himself as a Godfather-type figure, one working not in the underworld but in the clear light of day, in a godman's saffron robes (but with his sunglasses on at all hours), a source of forbidding power who had to be consulted or propitiated by everyone who wanted to set up house in India's financial capital.
In his youth he worked as a cartoonist, mocking those in power. When he grew to power himself, he became a demagogue: charismatic, bellicose, jaundiced and intolerant, a specialist in persuasive unreason (he openly admired Adolf Hitler, and the initials of his own party were SS) and a scourge of minorities, particularly Muslims. His life in politics was a steady accumulation of chauvinisms of language and religion, beginning with an espousal of the cause of "the Maratha manoos" (the Marathi-speaking native of Mumbai left bereft by "outsiders," or the economic migrants to the city) and progressing in the 1980s and 1990s to Hindutva, the idea that Hinduism in India needed to become more self-aware, politically organized and martial. He was blissfully oblivious to contradictions in his own personality: His weakness for an Anglicized spelling of his last name (usually Thakre in India, but in his case "Thackeray," after the British novelist William Makepeace Thackeray) was satirized by Salman Rushdie in his novel "The Moor's Last Sigh," where he appears as "Raman Fielding."
It was entirely symbolic of the spirit of Thackeray's life as a public figure that while half a million grieving followers attended his funeral, millions of other denizens of Mumbai didn't dare leave home, both out of fear of violence on the streets and because many public services had been shut down. The silence of condolence was inseparable from the silence of fear.
The Hindu reported the news with a lead sentence of stumbling syntax: 

Signalling the end of an era in Maharashtra politics, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray breathed his last around 3.30 p.m. on Saturday at his residence ‘Matoshree’ here after days of uncertainty over his health condition.
There is a kind of poetic truth in the image of a dying but arrogant patriarch indicating, with his last gesture, that an era has come to an end. Meanwhile, in the best Indian tradition of not speaking ill of the dead, dozens of public figures in Mumbai and across the country came out to offer emollient tributes to Thackeray's vision, resolve, candor and personal warmth, eliding his many irresponsible acts. These included not just hate speech, but also responsibility for actual bloodshed and murder, as during the religious riots in Bombay of 1992-93, when Shiv Sainiks smoked out and slaughtered many innocent Muslims on Thackeray's instructions.
A typical tribute that exemplified this airbrushing tendency came from the prominent journalist and poet Pritish Nandy, who wrote in the Hindustan Times about "the real Thackeray" behind the bluster, and offered a defense of the Sena's love of violence with a striking non sequitur:
Our friendship grew. Years later, when the press boycotted him after one of the Sena's usual rampages, I stood by him. My argument was quite simple. When you are in journalism and you want to stand for the truth, be prepared for the consequences. It's part of your job. As an Editor, I had many defamation cases against me. Death threats too. But that came with the turf. Many times Thackeray offered to send his people to protect me against angry chief ministers, underworld thugs, criminals and politicians I had exposed. I always refused and he loved the fact that I did. Thackeray liked the fearless.
He also liked people who did not seek favours. There were always two Thackerays. One, the politician, angry, demanding, making outrageous comments on everyone and everything around him. The other was the real Thackeray, a warm, witty man always ready to crack a naughty joke or sit with you and chat for hours over a frugal meal or some warm beer or, in later years, over equally warm Chantilly.
He hated red wine...
Ah, how impressive and principled was that aversion to red wine. A newspaper editor himself, Nandy was apparently protected by his personal friendship with Thackeray from "one of the Sena's usual rampages" in the offices of newspapers that had published something critical of the Sena  -- even as Thackeray himself insisted on the right to criticize anything he liked and in this way, earned for himself the reputation of being "fearless." Many of the tributes to Thackeray similarly achieved their tone of respect at the cost of disrespect to the truth, or the concession that violence is permissible as a mode of expression in a democracy.
Even the prime minister's office decided to deliver some angled condolences by declaring Thackeray "a consummate communicator," whatever that meant. This persistent obituarial genuflection was noted by the writer Rohit Chopra in a crushing piece called "Bal Thackeray's Poisonous Legacies":
The world of Indian mediapersons, the political establishment, and the charmed circle of Indian celebrities have been expressing their shock and grief even as they have been marveling at Thackeray’s greatness. In perfect concert with one another, these three incestuously interconnected sectors of Indian society...are colluding in a massive act of amnesia. The holy trinity of Indian elites is refusing to address Bal Thackeray’s culpability in the deaths of Hindus and Muslims in the 1992-1993 riots in Bombay, the lengthy record of Shiv Sena violence and threats against Tamilians, Gujaratis, and UPites, the Sena’s collusion with industrialists to break the backs of mill workers and unions in Bombay in the 1970s, the degradation of the political culture of Maharashtra and Mumbai, and the general destruction of the city’s cosmopolitan culture.
When these fundamental, defining aspects of Bal Thackeray’s life and career are acknowledged by commentators, they are immediately balanced -- according to some spurious notion of journalistic objectivity, I suspect -- by paeans to his personal charisma, political acumen, ability to gauge the pulse of the people, and so on. Or they are subsumed within larger narratives that efface or mitigate the violence. (He was good and bad / He was an enigma / He was sweet to me / He was a bundle of contradictions or a complex figure). ...
This is the real legacy of Bal Thackeray. To make political violence so routine that it ceases to outrage. To make the strategy of scapegoating and targeting particular ethnic, religious, or political groups part of the calculus of everyday politics. To make fear and intimidation a legitimate, accepted part of political leadership. And to constantly remind any potential critic, in media or otherwise, of the threat of violent reprisal for saying something that Thackeray and his thugs might not appreciate. ...
 It is a disgrace that Bombay is shut today. It is a disgrace that Thackeray is being wrapped in the national tricolor. It is a disgrace that he is being given state honors in his death. And it is a disgrace that none of our political leaders, celebrities, or media personalities seem to think any of this is a disgrace. And that if they do they are terrified of saying so.
Or as Nikhil Wagle, a journalist who stood up to the Sena and was persistently harassed by Thackeray's men, and on more than one occasion attacked physically, said in an interview:
Minus the terror, the Sena is nothing. What separates them from other political parties is this ability to inspire terror.... From 1966 till now the Marathi media has lent support to the Shiv Sena at every step....The general attitude in the media is that they try to cover these shortcomings by claiming that their job is to report, not to criticise. Of course, it is no surprise that they are not attacked; if you start of by being scared where is the need to attack you?
Aroon Tikekar, a scholar specializing in the history of Mumbai and one of the most respected voices in the city's Marathi-language press, questioned Thackeray's advocacy of the Maratha cause, arguing that the politician's language of entitlement and coercion was a hindrance to genuine progress in the realm of Marathi politics and culture:
A reason why generations of youngsters felt attracted to him was that he told them not to read. Thackeray pooh-poohed all social, political and economic theories and told his followers those were useless. He kept the youngsters' vision confined to the Marathi issue in which, no doubt, he considerably succeeded. However, in the ultimate analysis, the result had been the stunted intellectual and cultural growth of the Marathi community. These followers were emotionally charged, but that's about it. How would Thackeray escape the charge that he de-intellectualised the Marathi community and insulated it from others? In the 19th century, Marathis were known to be hard-working, god-fearing, honest, sincere, and had respect for scholarship. Under Thackeray they became the opposite.
If there was some tendency of Thackeray's that seemed worth encouraging, it was that his insistence on having his way all the time was ultimately self-defeating, even among a cadre as committed and worshipful as the Shiv Sena. Early in his 70s, as his strength waned, Thackeray shot himself in the foot by insisting that the party be run by his son, Uddhav Thackeray. A host of prominent leaders who had led the Sena to power in Bombay left the party, greatly weakening it, even as the younger Thackeray made faltering attempts to replicate his father's bluster and bile. Meanwhile, the person within the party who most resembled the senior Thackeray, his nephew Raj Thackeray, left in a huff. He started an imitation of the Shiv Sena, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, which gradually made inroads into the Sena's constituency in Bombay and Maharashtra. Mumbaikars, for long used to thinking of themselves as the most cosmopolitan of Indians, happy to live and let live, now have to deal with two parties trying to outdo each other with petty chauvinism and rabble-rousing about insiders and outsiders.
And what of the testimony and the convictions of the millions of Indians, some of them Marathi-speaking but many not, who looked up to Thackeray, saw him as a defender of "Hindu pride," endorsed his strong-arm tactics, and wept bitterly at his funeral? Shouldn't their opinions be respected, too? It's worth placing their sentiments within the history of the many regional potentates in almost seven decades of Indian democracy, and the devotion and reverence that such figures -- from the late actor-politician MG Ramachandran in Tamil Nadu to the hysterical Mamata Banerjee in present-day Bengal -- inspire in their supporters.
The psychological character of this kind of relationship is very different from what voters evince for their representatives in mature democracies, and resembles instead the old protector-and-protected, patron-and-subject world of Indian feudalism. When the supreme power of such a world passes away it's very common to hear people say, as they repeatedly did after Thackeray's death, that they have been "orphaned."
Whatever the merits of such a relationship, it's clear that it's not conducive to democratic debate or dissent; whenever a citizenry is willing to invest such enormous faith in a person, there is sure to be someone happy to claim it and exploit it. Mumbai, whose storied history encompasses many worlds and civilizations other than Marathi, will never on paper be Bombay again. But with the demise of the ferocious and divisive figure who for almost half a century persistently held it hostage, it suddenly has the room to be once again the welcoming, open-handed city it was at its best.
 

Note: (Chandrahas Choudhury, a novelist, is the New Delhi correspondent for World View. Follow him on Twitter @Hashestweets. The opinions expressed are his own.).
To contact the author of this blog post: Chandrahas Choudhury at Chandrahas.choudhury@gmail.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this post: Max Berley at mberley@bloomberg.net.

Courtesy: www.bloomberg.com

Statement by the President of the USA, Mr.Barrack Hussein Obama, on the occasion of Diwali

Today, here at home and across the globe, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists will celebrate the holiday of Diwali -– the festival of lights. Diwali is a time for gathering with family and friends, often marked with good food and dancing. It is also a time for prayer and reflection about those less fortunate. It is a testament to the compassion of these communities that so many of them have helped those that have been devastated by Hurricane Sandy.

Many who observe this holiday will light the Diya, or lamp, which symbolizes the triumph of light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance. As that lamp is lit, we should all recommit ourselves to bring light to any place still facing darkness. Earlier this year, we were reminded of the evil that exists in the world when a gunman walked into the Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin and opened fire. In the wake of that horrible tragedy, we saw the resilience of a community that drew strength from their faith and a sense of solidarity with their neighbors, Sikh and non-Sikh alike. We also saw compassion and love, in the heroic actions of the first responders and the outpouring of support from people across the country. Out of a day of sadness, we were reminded that the beauty of America remains our diversity, and our right to religious freedom.

To those celebrating Diwali, I wish you, your families and loved ones Happy Diwali and Saal Mubarak.

Courtesy: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Safety measures for your wedding night

Your wedding night is the most anticipated night since you get engaged. You dream to making love with your fiancé, but this is the right time to turn your fantasy into reality. Your wedding or first night is perhaps the most exciting time of your lives! Expectations run high and they want it be the best time that they will ever have. Sex has highest priority during this time. Albeit, this is the most romantic and memorable night but it may land you in soup without taking safety measures. Here expert gives you some formal tips on common issues related to your first wedding night.

Problem: Fear of performance

Generally, there is a notion that every bride and every groom has the most intimate and wonderful sex of their lives on their first night. But in reality, it is an intimate moment and an opportunity. The boys are scared of performance whether they will satisfy their brides physically and emotionally or not, whereas the brides think of if they would be able to fulfill their grooms’ desire. With this myth how will they be able to lead a healthy conjugal life?  According to Dr. Vasanta Patre (Marriage counselor, Delhi), both bride and groom should come up with effective solution on this issue.

For groom: Forget the sensuous scenes of movies. Don’t try to be cozy with your partner on first attempt. Try to understand their feeling and emotions. Trust is very much important which you have to develop in her heart. Make your bride comfortable with your light and casual talks.

For bride: Nobody, who is emotional, wants to do anything without her wives’ permission. Don’t think that your husband will take your shyness and hesitation otherwise. So try to be little spontaneous.

Problem: Contraceptive ideas

It is difficult to discuss contraceptive measures amidst hustle and bustle of preparations for marriage ceremony. It becomes more difficult because bride-grooms are unable to share intimate chemistry in the beginning of their relationship. According to Dr. Atul Goswami (Fortis Hospital), both bride and groom should be mentally prepared for family planning.

For groom: Do not expect that your newly wedded wife will discuss with you on contraceptive ideas. In fact, contraceptive measure depends upon grooms, particularly in your initial wedding days. Try to know the ideas about contraception from your partner. If she doesn’t want to conceive immediately post marriage, try to use condom for few days.

For bride: Ask your partner regarding family planning. If you are hesitating to ask such kind of questions, try to mold it by asking about his future plans. This will be the best option to keep your thought before him.
Problem: How to ward off health issues

Often, couple gets to know about each other’s health issues post marriage. Hence, they start blaming each other. According to senior gynecologist Dr. Aasha Sharma (Rockland Hospital), both bride and groom should get done full health check up before marriage.

For groom: Consult your doctor regarding sexual problems and undergo proper test. If you had a premarital sexual relationship with anybody, HIV test is very necessary. If you have a frequent boozer or any kind of drug addiction you have, must consult a good doctor. Check your blood sugar and get done blood group taste.

For bride: Hormonal imbalance or period regarding issues should be sought out before your marriage. Take advice from an expert regarding contraception usage and its side-effects. Normally, UTI or honeymoon syrosis are common problem for majority of the newly married brides, so must consult a good doctor. Get checked your blood group. If your blood group has RH- and your partner’s blood group has RH+, it will create a problem in your pregnancy. If husband has RH- and wife has RH+, it will not create any kind of problem.

Get checked your hemoglobin level. Generally, Indian women are found anemic. This problem causes you tiredness, PID, vaginal discharge and many more infections. In fact, infections develop easily during intercourse.

Problem: How much you share?

This is also a common problem that how much you share with your partner in your initial days post marriage. Transparency is very important in ideal marriage. But according to such cases, your honesty lands you in soup sometime. Here Dr. Patre gives you some special tips on this:

For groom: Ask yourself why you are keen to know about your wife’s past? Don’t ask any kind of baseless questions. Despite her past, try to focus on happy future.

For bride: What if your husband is keen to share his past and want to know about your past stories. Don’t share anything related to your past, it will land you in trouble. Being skeptical about each other’s loyalty is a very dangerous thing in marital life. Therefore, it is advised to pursue the path which gives you the confidence necessary for leading a happy and tension free conjugal life.

Courtesy: Sakhi

BJP accuses MIM of taking political mileage from temple row

Hyderabad: The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, which withdrew support to Congress-led UPA government at the Centre and Andhra Pradesh government, came under fire from BJP which accused the outfit of resorting to "communal blackmail" to draw political mileage from the temple row.

"The allegation levelled by MIM President Asaduddin Owaisi against BJP and Sangh Parivar is far from truth and there is no question of involvement (of Sangh Parivar activists) in the temple row," President of Andhra Pradesh unit BJP G Kishan Reddy told reporters here.

MIM's move to pull out of UPA government at Centre and Kiran Kumar Reddy government in the state is an "eyewash" and "communal blackmailing" for drawing a political mileage from the temple row, he charged.

Rebutting MIM's allegations that the state government "favoured" a particular community, Reddy said "the N Kiran Kumar Reddy government, after initial reluctance, only implemented the orders of the High Court to maintain a status quo as on October 30 at Baghyalaxmi temple adjacent to historic Charminar".

Reddy said civil authorities, after holding detailed discussions with Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), restored the status quo position as per the court orders.

Claiming that ordinary Muslims are not against the temple, Reddy said MIM was opposing implementation of the court orders for its "selfish" motives.

He asked the government to allow devotees to pay their obeisance at the temple tomorrow on the occasion of Diwali. BJP national secretary K Laxman, who was also present at the press conference, said the police arrested seer Swami Paripurnananda when he went to Bhagyalaxmi temple to participate in rituals.

Lok Sabha member Asaduddin Owaisi, who heads the 7-member MIM in the 294-member House, accused the state government of allowing "Sangh Parivar activists to have a free run" against the backdrop of a tarpaulin being allowed to be laid on Bhagyalaxmi temple yesterday.

Courtesy: Jagran Post

Next will be Ajmer…
RASHEEDA BHAGAT

The most worrying aspect of the Haji Ali Dargah ban on women from entering the most sacred area of the shrine is that, eventually, all the dargahs in India may enforce a similar decree.

Haji Ali Dargah - Mahalakshmi, Mumbai.

November 12, 2012:  Every time I’ve visited Mumbai in the last 20 years and driven close to the iconic Sufi Dargah of the 15th century Sufi Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari, I’ve invariably told the driver how I’d always wanted to visit the shrine but never managed to. Each time, the response, irrespective of the driver being a Hindu or a Muslim, had been… “But you should go inside. Waha pey bada sukun milta hei…(You get a feeling of peace there.)”

Well, the Trust that runs the shrine has just made it that much more difficult for me, a woman, to enter the innermost portion of the dargah… the grave of the Pir — what is normally known as the sanctum sanctorum in a temple. Recently, a fatwa was passed banning women from entering the area that is considered most sacred in any shrine.

Located on a bed of rocks about 500 yards into the Arabian Sea off the coast of south-central Mumbai, the Haji Ali Dargah is one of the most iconic sites in Mumbai, and has been a favourite shooting location for Bollywood films. As expected, the latest fatwa has caused a furore in many circles and spearheading the protest is the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) — a women’s group that has launched a survey on the number of dargahs in India that are barring women from entering the sacred areas. It says out of 20 dargahs in the city, seven have kept women out.

Explaining the move, Rizwan Merchant, a trustee of the dargah and a noted criminal lawyer, said: “While women are not allowed inside the sanctum sanctorum of the dargah, they can read their prayers, do namaz and offer shawls and flowers. All that we are requesting our sisters is not to enter inside the dargah.”

How very considerate! That his “sisters” will be allowed such allowances as praying, offering flowers, and so on. The biggest irony is that this ban has been slapped on a shrine dedicated to a Sufi saint… the essence of Sufism is to embrace liberal views, be extremely tolerant and, above all, celebrate inclusiveness.

Flimsy reason:

There is some confusion about when the ban was enforced. Some claim it was seven years ago — a lie because, till recently, women were going all the way into the dargah. Founder of BMMA Noorjehan Safia Niaz was told by a trustee that this decision was taken after “the authorities noticed that a woman came inappropriately dressed last year.”

Perfect! So crucify all the women, to pay for the “inappropriate” dress of one visitor. If such a woman did enter the inner core of the place, surely that was the failure of the authorities to enforce a reasonable dress code. After all, at the holiest of cathedrals and churches in Italy, at the very entrance, women in shorts and sleeveless tops are stopped.

But the difference is that if they can wrap a scarf around their shoulders or use a shawl as some kind of a wrap-around skirt, there is no problem. Thus, no woman is denied entry, whether it is to worship or to admire the mind-boggling, exquisite architecture of these monuments.

This development brings us to a common charge against Muslim clergy. Are they uncomfortable with women’s sexuality? Or plain scared?

Or, is this yet another form of discrimination against women and asserting that the male is superior to the female? That I, a male Mullah, or Trustee, or whatever, can deny you, the poor wretched woman, any right or privilege I deem fit.
Across religions

As for women’s sexuality, if you put the issue through a microscope, other religions do not emerge any holier.

Take the Sabarimala pilgrimage. Girls under 10 and women over 50 are allowed, which boils down to the menstruating woman being an “impure” creature who has to be kept out.

And, then, you have a plethora of scandals in ashrams or mutts run by so-called holy men!

In 1995, at the ashram run in Pudukottai by the godman Premananda, my expose was instrumental in putting the sexual pervert and fake seer behind bars, in two life sentences upheld by the Supreme Court.

He was arrested and imprisoned on charges of raping and sexually assaulting women under his care in the idyllic surroundings of the ashram. A DNA test on one of the pregnant girls proved his paternity.

Under his watch, a man was also murdered and buried there. Last year, Premananda died in prison while still serving his sentence. Some of the mutts in Tamil Nadu have been in the news for similar unsavoury episodes. Recently, the leelas of Swami Nithyananda, who was supposed to be anointed chief of the Madurai Aadheenam, were exposed. Fortunately, that decision was reversed.

To many of our “religious” men, women are either considered to be impure and shooed out or suppressed, or exploited sexually!

Across the political divide, both Congress General-Secretary Digvijay Singh and BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi have condemned the Haji Ali ban and urged all “liberals” to oppose it. But the same Diggy Raja has no qualms about dragging Rakhi Sawant unnecessarily into his battle with activist Arvind Kejriwal. In a tweet that has been bashed, he said: “Arvind Kejriwal is like Rakhi Sawant. They both try and expose, but with no substance. Apologies to Rakhi Sawant. I am an old fan of hers!”

The “50-crore girlfriend” and the Rakhi Sawant comment reinforce our male politicians’ mindset… women are easy game. Period. So why blame only the Muslim clergy, fake swamis and dargah trustees?

But the most worrying aspect of the Haji Ali Dargah ban is some of the trustees boasting that, eventually, all the dargahs in India will enforce a similar decree as “according to the Sharia law women are not allowed near cemeteries or graveyards.”

This seems to be just the beginning. The next target will be Ajmer Sharif and other holy shrines.

It is another matter that in the holiest of shrines, such as those of Shia saints — Hazrat Ali or Imam Hussain in Iraq — women are allowed right inside… to the embedded graves cordoned with gold and silver covered grills.

Of course, being lesser beings, women get only one-fourth of the circumference of the grave, even though they outnumber men and take much longer to pay their homage. The rest is reserved for men. And we think Indian Muslims are far more liberal!

Email: rasheeda.bhagat@thehindu.co.in and blfeedback@thehindu.co.in

Courtesy: The Hind Business Line

Hyderabad: Bridegroom, 2 (twow) others arrested in contract marriage case

But such marriages are a norm in Iran and Shia Islam.. CLICK HERE.

The cleric used to target girls from poor families and get them married for a few months in exchange for huge sums of money.

Hyderabad: Police have arrested three people including a bridegroom and a Muslim cleric who used to solemnise marriages following a sting operation on contract marriages by IBN7. The Muslim cleric has been suspended by the Minority Commission and the police are also investigating the role of some others in the case. The cleric and his associates used to target girls from poor families and get them married for a few months in exchange for huge sums of money. After a few months the girls were abandoned by their husband.

The incident of contract marriage was reported from Falaknuma area of Hyderabad and three people including the youth getting married were arrested. The Muslim cleric, who has been arrested, used to promise his clients contract marriages for six to eight months.

According to Hyderabad Police officials such incidents were reported earlier too but the investigators failed to find the role of an organised gang behind it. Such contract marriages were then seen as isolated incidents.

The cleric used to target girls from poor families and get them married for a few months in exchange for huge sums of money.
Hyderabad: Bridegroom, 2 others arrested in contract marriage case

Meanwhile, IBN7 reported about a contract marriage in Hyderabad in 2011 when the locals caught a cleric involved in this. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP from Hyderabad, Asaduddin Owaisi, thanked the channel for uncovering the incident. He said that such contract marriages were a form of prostitution and he would ask the government to take the strictest possible action against the culprits. 

Courtesy: CNN IBN

Why Girish Karnad is Wrong

Karnad's invective is not a fact based logical rebuttal of Naipaul's ideological variance. It lacks the grace or elements of an intellectual discourse, says Vivek Gumaste.

Girish Karnad's vitriolic diatribe against writer V S Naipaul at the Mumbai Lit Fest that honoured the Indian origin Nobel Laureate with a Lifetime Achievement Award is a tad different from his more recent broadside against the poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

His criticism of Tagore carries a more acceptable literary nuance but his attack on Naipaul stands out as a classic example of an intellectual antithesis, everything that a congregation of learned literati is supposed to negate: an emotional outburst that is an unbridled catharsis of one's own petulant prejudices masked by the façade of a dubious variant of secularism; a rant that answers to no rationale, subscribes to a narrow and pedestrian interpretation of history and deliberately misleads by discrediting legitimate references.

Karnad's animosity towards Naipaul stems from what he perceives as Naipaul's 'rabid antipathy of the Indian Muslim' and his depiction of Muslim invaders as plunderers. Expressing his displeasure at Naipaul's felicitation, Karnad queries: "But do they mean to valorise Naipaul's stand that Indian Muslims are raiders and marauders?"

First let us be clear about one thing: Naipaul's offensive characterisation refers to Muslim invaders of yore and not present day Indian Muslims. Second, Naipaul is not an outlier when it comes to such an assessment. Brutalities perpetrated by Muslim armies have been corroborated by distinguished world historians.

Alain Danielou in Histoire de l'Inde writes: "From the time Muslims started arriving, around AD 632, the history of India becomes a long, monotonous series of murders, massacres, spoilations, destructions."

William James Durrant (1885-1981) an American writer, historian and philosopher concurs. In his 11 volume magnum opus, The Story of Civilization that spans over 10,000 pages and is a premier work of history, he categorically states that the Muslim conquest of India is "probably the bloodiest story in history."

Next, Karnad expounds a bizarre theory: dearth of reference to Indian music in Naipaul's writing as proof of his insensitivity to Hindu-Muslim interaction: "…there is not a single word in any of them on Indian music. And I believe that if you cannot respond to music, you cannot understand India. Music is the defining art form of the Indian identity. Naipaul's silence on the subject when he is exploring the whole of modern Indian culture suggests to me that he is tone deaf -- which in turn explains his insensitivity to the intricate interweaving of Hindu and Muslim creativities…"

Let us be realistic. True, music does play an important part in our lives but to consider music as the sum total of Indian identity is to push the boundaries of creative imagination a bit too far. That Muslims have made an extraordinary contribution to Indian fine art especially music is undeniable. However, that assertion begets the question: can benevolence in one area be a reason to overlook an atrocity in another? Can we invoke the mellifluous lyrics infused into our daily lives to condone the vandalism of Muslim invaders, to justify the widespread desecration of Hindu temples and to ignore the large scale butchery of non-Muslims? The answer has to be in the negative.

We need to move beyond a primary grade interpretation of history wherein everyone and everybody fits snugly into rigid water-tight boxes marked black and white to a mature and realistic perception of past events: the ability to appreciate shades of gray. History needs to be evaluated in toto: warts and all. It cannot be reduced to a selective extraction of information manipulated to conform to one's pet theories or emotional inclinations. Let us offer bouquets where it is deserved and brickbats where warranted.

Karnad is dismissive about Naipaul's depiction of the Vijayanagar as a Hindu bastion that was felled by a conspiracy of Muslim kingdoms attributing his conclusion to a simplistic inference from a faulty source: "But again he gets this interpretation of the history of Vijayanagar readymade from a book by Robert Sewell called A Forgotten Empire, published in 1900. Naipaul simply accepts this picture as the unadorned truth and recycles it wholesale as his own."

But is Girish Karnad's contention valid? Certainly not. Sewell's A Forgotten Empire is a seminal piece of work that spans 427 pages (Asian Educational Services. New Delhi [ Images ]. 2007) and draws its information from the original writings of Portuguese travelers Fernao Nuniz and Domingo Paes who visited Vijayanagar in the 1500s and the Indian Muslim historian of those times, Firishtah. Written in 1900 it lacks the ideological tug of modern India.

Sewell's account of the pillage of Vijayanagar is graphic: "The victorious Mussulmans had reached the capital, and from that time forward for a space of five months Vijayanagar knew no rest. They slaughtered the people without mercy, broke down the temples and palaces. They demolished the statues, and even succeeded in breaking the limbs of the huge Narasimha monolith and smashed its exquisite stone sculptures. With fire and sword, with crowbars and axes, they carried on day after day their work of destruction. Never perhaps in the history of the world has such havoc been wrought, and wrought so suddenly, on so splendid a city; teeming with a wealthy and industrious population in the full plenitude of prosperity one day, and on the next seized, pillaged, and reduced to ruins, amid scenes of savage massacre and horrors beggaring description. (p 207).

To counter Sewell's version, Karnad needs to provide specifics not vague generalisations.

Finally in a blatant personal attack Karnad paints Naipaul as a fraud who writes essays after skimming through 'third hand truncated translations' and a man consumed by petty vindictiveness.

All in all Karnad's invective is not a fact based logical rebuttal of Naipaul's ideological variance. It lacks the grace or elements of an intellectual discourse. Frankly speaking, it is an argumentum ad hominem.

Courtesy: www.rediff.com