Friday, April 03, 2009

Its a good thing I don't have to vote

The BJP said it was also committed to building a temple to Hindu god Ram in the northern town of Ayodhya.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7980656.stm
So much for secular government! :(

I am utterly confounded as to whom to vote for! (if I were in the country that is)

4 comments:

kaushik said...

surely not for the UPA! they make you feel sorry that you are a hindu...i spent a long time aghast at the hindutva agenda of BJP... but now, i feel that there is some merit in what they say (although the temple may not be the best way to get it done)...

Congress talks about secularism and divides on the basis of religion..BJP is at least not two-faced...

Being a hindu party is not being non-secular too...secularism means every one gets to practice his religion freely....even in the US, you have to be (or pretend to be) a GOD fearing christian to get votes...but other religions are respected here....over the years, Congress cheap vote bank politics has meant that secularism in India is appeasing the muslims and christians at the expense of hindus

skar said...

@Kaushik: What merit do you see in the BJP's hindutva attitude?

Hindutva is a form of fundamentalism and hence non-secular. Hindutva hardliners are not in favour of free practice of all religions. There is no need now for the government to take up the job of building a temple at Ayodhya in my opinion. I am not sure what merit you see in the BJP's take on religion?

Why does the Congress make you feel sorry that you are a Hindu? Give me specific examples. Congress talks about secularism and divides on the basis of religion? How so?

p.s: Thanks for commenting.

Pooja Nair said...

the people who demolshed the babri masjid make me feel sorry about being a Hindu

the people who burn chuches in Orrisa make me feel sorry that i am a hindu

the people who massacred muslims in gujarat make me feel sorry that i am a hindu

the movie "Ammu" about the 1984 riots made me cringe for being a hindu too...(but the congress has since apologised, Tytler unlike NMode did not go on to become CM and today a sikh man is the country's PM.

whereas NM wears the 2002 riots like a feather in his cap.

We all are seeing how Varun Gandhi gets the silent backing of the BJP.

So if we were to begin our choice by the method of elimination, i know i will vote for anyone BUT the NDA.

skar said...

Hi Pooja,

As you might've inferred from my response to Kaushik, I am not in favour of Hindu extremism as much as I am not in favour of any other form of religious extremism.

However, my primary motive for voting(if I could) for the BJP would be for economic reasons. The BJP did some spectacular reforms in the first three years of their holding power, unlike the UPA which has done very powerly as far as economic reforms are concerned. Secondly, it might be of some interest to observe that some of the examples of atrocities you mentioned like 'demolition of the babri masjid', 'burning of churches in Orissa', 'the 1984 riots' all happened with a Congress government at the Centre. These are examples of religious atrocities and religion is not a state issue. Why didn't the Centre intervene? That is something to ponder. No doubt the fundamentalist strain in the present BJP is worrisome, but I find the stagnating or even shackling socialist-capitalist throttling of the Congress just as worrisome, and I am not very pleased that the leader of the nation should be a self-respectless puppet.