Divisions

I read somewhere that people in Priya Dutt’s constituency were spreading the rumour that her husband was a Jew; he is a Catholic. The reason attributed to the rumour was to rile the Muslims who apparently start frothing at the mouth when Jews are mentioned.

This is such a silly conjecture. Muslims in India have hardly ever reacted to the Jew and Zionism as Muslims in many other parts of the world. True, there have been support rallies for Palestine, but that just does not translate into being anti-Jew. I don’t understand how people can sit on some perch and start chirping like little old gossips.

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We may be getting tired of Varun Gandhi but the fellow has managed to get a ticket from Pilibhit and is also campaigning for other candidates. At one rally, he rather audaciously declared:

“Now you people have to reply to my mothers’s tears.”

There are the tears of several mothers that need answers. Did he ash his goons to stop going on a rampage? Did he send out an appeal for peace? Now he talks about ahimsa (non-violence)and the disgusting thing is people might buy it because people buy such rubbish. We have very short memories. Instead of addressing core issues (naturally), he said:

“Main aapke bachchon ke samman ke liye jail gaya thha (I went to jail for the sake of your children’s honour).”

The honour of these children could be restored with literacy (which is among the bottom of the heap even in Uttar Pradesh) and alleviation of poverty (over 45 per cent under the poverty line). What honour can they boast of now? That he spoke about some limited idea of patriotism? That he got aggressive about a certain community?