The letters from the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation were Anti-Muslim and Anti-Christian, but what led those letters to is the meeting in Frisco, where Madhu Kishwar spoke, and it turned out to be not-anti-at all. I am glad I got to hear Madhu Kishwar.
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2014/06/anti-muslim-and-anti-christian-friscy.html
An Alarming letter was posted by Global Hindu Heritage Foundation
and held an anti-Muslim and anti-Christian rally in Frisco, Texas - so I
went to the meeting. The agenda was not the same as it was in the
letter.
I think Indians in general and Muslims in
particular need to hear Madhu Kishwar, she will be in town through
Thursday in
New York. She threw me off with her perspectives, with a grain of salt
and skepticism, I did hear her full one hour talk. A critique turned
defender of Modi. A few notes for your to ponder upon.
The letter was posted by the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation at our
forum, DallasIndians@yahoogroups.com
. The letter was outright discriminatory, tearing India apart kind of letter, and
was sent to India's newly elected Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi. The letter
was insane, and it was hard to believe that Indians living in America want to
discriminate and deny equal rights to Christians and Muslims in India. I just
could not fathom that most of the men on the list were Medical Doctors and
PhD's. The letter and my response to the
letter is at: http://foundationforpluralism.blogspot.com/2014/06/tearing-india-apart-hatefilled-mindset.html
The occasion was the 7th Annual Hindu Unity Day in
Frisco. Unity of each community and Unity of communities must be
appreciated. By the way, the first
Hindu Unity day in Dallas was organized by the Foundation for Pluralism on
June 17, 2005 in Dallas.
I wanted to attend the event to understand what goes on.
A few years ago they had organized a summit on Islam – and I had asked them if
there was any Muslim on the panel, there was none, and they ignored my request
and perhaps passed judgments on Muslims without the presence of Muslims. It is
always good to be engaged and hear each other’s point of view; when it is about
the each other.
The speakers were Madhu Kishwar and Dr. Graham Schweig. The first
session
before lunch included several Dallas based organization heads talking
about
their efforts in campaigning for Mr. Narendra Modi, and I missed the
first speaker Kalyan Viswanathan, who might have delivered a negative
speech. I did
not hear Dr. Schweig’s speech as I had to leave.
Madhu Kishwar delivered a full hour’s speech “Modi and the Media – setting the
record Straight” – it was a pleasant surprise, there was no hatred spewing out
for Muslims or Christians. Usually fund raisers get people riled up against something
or someone to get people to open their check books, and a lot of people fall
prey for that. I have been to the fund raisers of right wing Jews, Christians and Muslims
as well, and have spoken up against their rhetoric.
Madhu Kishwar was rather inclusive in her approach.
Whenever she mentioned a positive statement about
inclusion of Muslims – people clapped out of their hearts. I have always believed that humans instantaneously react with goodness, it’s
only when they deliberate they get corrupted. Indeed, in my
response to GHHF letter I had mentioned that a majority of the signatories on
that letter probably did not even read the contents and had simply signed it,
for a few to carry forward. It is hard for me to believe that
so many people in a group could subscribe to such vitriolic pronouncements, and most of them would not have signed it, had they read it.
It was refreshing to hear her. She threw in a lot of information that I
need to verify and absorb. It is always good to verify before you
believe, when the
information is different than what we have heard it all along. I
ran into her again at the Sonu Nigam Show, and she assured me that her
reports are legitimate and said the Nanavati Report was accurate.
Some of her points:
She was bashing the media for not agreeing to the clean chit by SIT - to
me democracy exists because of the press, good, bad and ugly. There are
some great statements by Jefferson and others on the topic.
Do you realize, both the left and right have exactly same complaint? That the media in on other's side.
She thinks - BJP was not convinced that Modi was not involved in the riots as
accused, that hesitancy was reflected in the talks and acts of BJP.
Per her Modi has done a lot of good things, but never flaunted it.
50% of Muslims Voted for Modi in Gujarat on February 24th
2002 results.
The hell broke loose within a couple of days – she asks, why would Modi
initiate riots when Muslims voted him so overwhelmingly?
28 Muslim Organizations headed by Kader Bhai in Rajkot had asked for a cemetery
plot which Modi had granted, and Modi never claimed or flaunted about it.
He is not divisive as claimed. Sab Ka Sath; sab ka Vikas has been his slogan from the very beginning.
I really liked when
she spoke my language – that is she will not accuse any one exclusively without
seeing the same mistake in others. Referring
to Togadia, she said, Muslims are no exception; we have our own share of Danga-ee
(trouble makers). It was not Modi that
needed the riots, but it was the Congress who needed it. (we have to assess this).
She claimed Army was called in immediately. And deployed on 3/1 – George Fernandez,
the then Defense Minister apparently toured the riot torn place on 2/28 while
the riots were still going on.
I bought the book - but wont't be able to read it, as I have to wrap up my book without any excuse.
Because
of the differences or dominance of Hindus, most of the Muslims,
Christians, Dalits and Sikhs have stayed away from being a part of India
based organizations.
All I ask Indian Muslims, Christians,
Sikhs and others to be involved with Indian organizations, we have to be
a part of the society, and all others have to be a part of our lives.
Otherwise, all of us would remain in shells not knowing what goes on, we
will be harming ourselves and our nation by not being a part of each
other. We have to live together, at least our relatives have to live
together in India and we need to care for all.
Mike Ghouse is an Indian American Public Speaker, thinker and a
writer committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the
day.
