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Usual Suspects: How to create a hostile "martyr" by refusing to think
- I do not subscribe to everything Jaswant Singh has written in his book. However, it is a sad day for the country if participation in public life through mainstream political parties is regulated by intellectual regimentation. His book was an honest scholastic exercise. He should not be punished for it.
- Political parties must not become arbiters of historical interpretation. Their involvement can only shrink the boundaries of honest appraisal--just as it has done in the academic world where Marxists call the shots.
- The BJP is in favour of creating a broad church--what it calls inclusive Hindutva. Can you be inclusive if you cannot be accommodative towards an attempt to write history? Far from being a broad church, the BJP gives the impression of being a sect. Its factional wars are resembling battles for the control of a mutt (seminary).
- POSTSCRIPT:
I had the occasion to read through the document the media is presenting as the Bal Apte report. Either Mr Apte did an extremely shoddy job and is unsuited to the task of inquiring into the 2009 election defeat or this document is a clear forgery. The document is a collection of homilies, supplemented with obvious statistics to make it look impressive. Even some tentwalla retainer could have written it based on press clippings.
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Saturday, August 22, 2009
Usual Suspects: How to create a hostile
