Deepa Mehta's _Fire_

[Ashish Chandra]

Micheal Rabe wrote :


After thanks to S. Paliniappan and N. Ganesan for their citations, I'm
forced by the logic of my own
arguments to note the following tradegy in this morning's news:

January 23, 1999
Three Burned to Death in India
              Filed at 10:09 p.m. EST
 By The Associated Press
[http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-India-Australians-Killed.html]

Bajarang Dal members burn to death an Australian missionary and his two
sons, ages 8 and 10, after 34 years of working with lepers in Eastern
India.   Forget about Sita's ordeal, this is more reminiscent of Hanuman's
burning Lanka.  The indological links have been anticipated by Sheldon
Pollock, among other places in his article written in response to the
Ram-janam-bhumi violence:

  Pollock, Sheldon I.  "Ra-ma-yan?a and Political Imagination in
India," Journal of Asian Studies 52:2 (May 1993), pp.261-297

-----------------------

Why the hell are you spreading this crap ? Who asked you to post this ?
Should I start posting every time a Hindu temple is burned or destroyed ?
And so far, there has been no proof of any involvement of the Bajrang Dal
in this incident although some BD activists were arrested. Below, I am
posting a press release by Shri Praveenbhai Togadia, International
Secretary of the VHP. You might claim that you are only reporting what you
read. Well, I'd say, read the Times of India or some other INDIAN paper,
most are available online. There had been no proof of any VHP-Bajrang Dal
involvement.

Also, here is the first paragraph of the AP report that Michael has twisted
to say "Bajrang Dal members burn..."

Ashish
__________________________
Three Burned to Death in India


          Filed at 10:09 p.m. EST

          By The Associated Press


NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- Members of a radical group burned to death an
Australian missionary and his two sons as they slept in a
          jeep in eastern India on Saturday, police said, in the first
deaths in a recent spate of religious violence.
[...]


Where does it say Bajrang Dal burned the three ?

================================

Dr Pravinbhai Togadia, General Secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP), today severely condemned the dastardly killing of the Australian
missionary and his two children in Orissa's Kaojhar district and denied
that the VHP or the Bajrang Dal had anything to do with it.
Offering condolence to the widow of the missionary, Fr Graham Stewart
Staines, and expressing shock over the incident, particularly the killing
of the two children, Dr Togadia said that the Hindu ethos is essentially
against settlement of dispute by violence.  "We believe in Sanskar which
means settling disputes through love, persuasion and debate," he remarked.
Welcoming the judicial probe into the incident ordered by the Orissa
Government, he described as "deep rooted conspiracy" attempts to drag the
VHP and the Bajrang Dal in the killing.  "It is an attempt to defame the
Hindu society as a whole," he said, and demanded that the guilty should be
brought to book as quickly as possible.
Regarding on Dara Singh, who is reportedly involved in the incident, he
said, "We have inquired through our channels and there is no one by the
name of Dara Singh who is even remotely associated with the Bajrang Dal in
Uttar Pradesh.  Dr Togadia dubbed as "a new fashion" on the part of the
VHP's rivals and politicians to drag the organisation's name in such
incidents to save their own skin.  "It seems that for these people the
cheapest scapegoat for covering their own lapses today is the Bajrang Dal,"
he quipped.
Dr Togadia said of late there has been a lot of resentment amongst the
Vanvasis across the country against organised conversion by the Christian
missionaries inn the name of service, which the Vanvasis think is resulting
in the erosion of their ancient and rich culture.  Adding further he said
as awareness spreads amongst the Vanvasis, their reaction to conversion is
only natural, but it should manifest itself in a peaceful and democratic
manner in accordance with the cultural ethos of Bharat.
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