--- On Mon 11/10, Ray Saintonge < saintonge@telus.net > wrote:
http://bjp.org/history.htm I could not have described nationalism better myself.
All political parties all over the world try to describe themselves as patriotic and nationalistic. There is nothing new in this. We are discussing the phrase "HINDU nationalist" not nationalist.
As for Iraq, I can assure you that the American requests to be rescued from their new Vietnam have not just gone out to "brown" countries.
The whole sham was for Indian troops and if BJP had its way, they would have shamelessly sent the troops in order to curry favor with the Americans. Fortunately, India has many parties and they couldn't come to agreement even within the ruling coalition.
This is a "non-sequitur". India is a democracy, but it does not follow that it is because of its Hindu majority.
Empirical evidence is on my side. In 1947, a portion of India was chopped off and given to Muslims. It ended up an Islamic theocracy and ethnically cleansed whatever minorities it had. Certain states in North Eastern India which are Christian majority have already "warned" people to convert to Christianity or else... The region is in flames. It is only because Hindus are a majority that India is democratic.
I'm glad to see that the residents of the occupied Portuguese territories are receiving a fair share of representations. He succeeded a Sikh. I guess that the old Hindu kshatriya caste is not as effective as it used to be. I suppose that's the down side to being peaceful.
What do you mean 'downside'? Is this a Western trait to see it as a downside unless someone from your tribe is not holding all important positions? As far as I know, Indians are proud of GeorgeF's efficiency despite his socialist past.
Saddam Hussein did not become more tolerable by naming a Christian, Tariq Aziz, as foreign minister.
If you had followed the news in the region, you'd have known that Saddam Hussein was a secular person and his Govt was not a jihadi Govt. Is this what Fox TV brainwashed Americans with? I know that Americans were hoodwinked by massive propaganda into supporting a war using lies and deception, but I didn't think they were told that Iraq was an Islamic fundamentalist state.
It overran Sikkim, and the Portuguese territories
Sikkim joined India and the Sikkim Assembly voted for it since they knew that they'd be taken over by China otherwise. Goa was overrun and the Portuguese kicked out liberating the Goan people. Heard of the Goan Inquisition where barbaric acts were committed by the Church?
Indian Marxists were all home-grown.
Communist Party of India split into two when India went to war with China over the issue of whether the masters were in Peking or Moscow.
At least here in British Columbia we have had a provincial premier, Ujjal Dosanjh, who was born in India.
You're still a xenophobic country in the sense that your Prime Minister cannot be foreign born. OTOH, we allow foreign born people to hold the office of Prime Minister and one such person could become our Prime Minister anytime. She is the leader of the opposition now.
Nothing prevents the views of communists and democrats from coinciding on given issues.
If a view was morally correct, I'd support the view too. I wouldn't oppose it just because the Communists support it. On this issue, it so happens that they cooked up lots of stuff. I am willing to discuss the issue point by point. The problem is that others who contributed to it acted in an arrogant manner and refused to do so. I'll give this to you - my style is not correct and I may tend to use hyperboles and am open to correction. However, the substance I contribute will be accurate and to the point. If you look at my contributions, I have taken the effort to explain my position and give links and at the same time I have removed lines which were hyperboles and attribution of motives which I should not have done. All I am asking is that others not attribute motives without basis (the only valid basis would be either an oral or written statement which is documented).
As the saying goes, yours is a case of the pot calling the kettle brown. :-)
There you go again, refusing to distinguish between a riot and a state sponsored genocide.
There are some very selective omissions from this. Iyer was a minister in a state government in 1957, not the federal government.
Selective ommission? You're attributing motives to me by making that statement. I didn't mention it because it didn't even strike me. Even if he was just a village level Marxist, he is a Marxist! If you knew about Indian politics, you'd have known that Communists never formed a Govt (except as part of a coalition) at the Centre and there are only 3 states where they routinely form the Govt.
Again, you miss the whole point. Why should a self appointed commission run by a Marxist get precedence over many other self appointed commissions of inquiry? By arguing on where you are a Minister, you assume that we are in agreement over the Marxist commission getting precedence over all other commissions of inquiry.
The 1987 presidential vote was a matter of all the parties working together to oppose the Congress(I) candidate. It seems that even the BJP voted for the Communist candidate.
I remember this election vividly. BJP voted against him and held a grudge it had extending back to 30 years. I am not sure where you get your news from or whether you start googling after I make a post here on the list. If that is the case, I am sorry to say you are on the wrong track. This was given as an example of why not to make enemies in politics and how it comes back to bite them.
-libertarian
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In the interests of maintaining peace in the family, I will restrain myself in my attempts to be tauntingly truthful in matters relating to India. ;-)
libertarian wrote:
--- On Mon 11/10, Ray Saintonge < saintonge@telus.net > wrote:
At least here in British Columbia we have had a provincial premier, Ujjal Dosanjh, who was born in India.
You're still a xenophobic country in the sense that your Prime Minister cannot be foreign born. OTOH, we allow foreign born people to hold the office of Prime Minister and one such person could become our Prime Minister anytime. She is the leader of the opposition now.
Your observation is factually incorrect. John Turner was the most recent foreign born prime minister.
Ec