“Sickular” editorial?
Your editorial (“Don’t Mess with India’s Secularism,” September 2017) calls for more introspection
by the writer. Secularism should bring in equitable
treatment for everyone irrespective of their faith, race,
or ethnic origin. The so called advocates of secularism
tend to blame our beloved Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and his party for messing with secularism.
They deliberately ignore the fact that the basic tenets
of secularism have long been violated when the
pseudo-secularist Congress party favored Muslims
by giving them unfair appeasement for the sake of
wining their votes. Wasn’t secularism violated when
Muslims started receiving subsidized pilgrimage
while Hindus continue to pay pilgrimage tax, when
the judgement in Shah Bano case was undone by
Indira Gandhi by making retroactive amendment
to the constitution, when [Abdul Rahman] Antulay
was appointed a trustee for Hindu public temple but
vice versa cannot even be talked about. Why are the
editorials of your kind completely silent when
Mamata Banerjee starts paying salary to mullahs out
of government funds, when a blind eye is turned to
more than 30 million illegal Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants
for the sake of their votes, and when Muslim
clerics openly declare that Supreme Court has no
authority over the Islamic rules. Either you do not have
courage to write the truth or you are that “sickularist.”
We should get rid of this kind of secularism
and bring in real secularism that brings in one-nation-one-law policies and complete elimination of
minority appeasement.
Jaydev Jani
By email
Editor’s Note: You are right in pointing out the flaws in
Indian secularism. We have published editorials advocating a
Uniform Civil Code over Muslim Personal Law (e.g. January
2009). However, the greater threat to a nation is not the flaws
favoring a minority, but rather the bully pulpit of the majority
that has a far larger potential to derail the peace and stability
of the nation. As to addressing the flaws favoring minorities,
that is better done through legislative changes, rather than
through alienating minorities. A good example is PM Modi’s
erstwhile outreach to Muslims for a legal elimination of ‘Triple
Talaq’, the archaic Muslim decree about divorce.
A bold and appropriate
editorial on secularism
Your editorial was very bold, well written, timely,
and appropriate. Extremism in any country should
be condemned. It has never worked and will not
work now. I hope your message will be read by the
people in authority in India. Mr. Modi should not encourage
VHP and Hindutva, and he should put a curb
on their agenda.
I know that some people of other faiths are not
loyal to India but their number is small. This relates
to patriotism, not enforcement of religious beliefs. Every
Indian should take an oath to defend the country,
irrespective of color, caste, religion, or the country
of origin, quite similar to when a green card holder
becomes a U.S. citizen.
I have read The Rig Veda and The Principal Upanishads
(the latter by S. Radhakrishnan, the great scholar, former
President and Vice President of India and Vice
Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University). Nowhere
does the word Hindu appear in these books. The word
came when soldiers who came with Alexander the
Great settled down in India instead of going back to
Macedonia. The old scriptures written prior to Alexander’s
invasion of India used the word Aryan and India
used to be known as Aryavrat which included today’s
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet, and
Burma (Myanmar).
And what about the following words from our
sacred scriptures? Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, which
means “the whole world is my family.” And the
following shloka?
Sarve bhavantu sukhinah
Sarve santu nirāmayāh
Sarve bhadrāni paśyantu
Mā kashchit duhkha bhāgbhavet
(May all be prosperous and happy
May all be free from illness
May all see what is spiritually uplifting
May no one suffer)
Now should we replace Sarve (meaning All)
with the word Hindu? Is this what Hindu extremists
want? Should we ignore the teachings of our sacred
scriptures?
Ajay Mehrotra
Greenville, South Carolina
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Indians and tipping in restaurants
I read the article “What’s your Tipping Point?” (September 2017) and just began to think how some Indians
spoil the name of all Indians.
My friend had a restaurant in Alabama, and he had the same problem. Waiters, when they saw Indians walking
into the restaurant, would go to the bathroom, and the other waiters would attend the tables very reluctantly.
There was a day when three Indian families, 10 people, came to the restaurant, and the bill I am told was $190.20.
They enjoyed the food and were in the restaurant for more than two and a half hours. The tip: $0.80 cents. These
three families all have a number of gas stations. When he told me that, I suggested to him to put a note on the
menu saying that for a group of 5, a 15% gratuity would be added, and for a group more than 8, the gratuity would
be 20%. He did that and the problem was solved.
Three weeks later the same three families came to the restaurant for dinner and the gratuity of 20% was
added. They called the waiter and asked why, and he told them that is the restaurant policy. After that I am told
they had no problems.
B. P. Andrade
by email
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