In 1984, thousands of Sikhs, including men, women and children, were killed. Hundreds of women were assaulted and widowed, children orphaned and property worth crores of rupees belonging to the Sikh community was destroyed after the assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi.
Late Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, then PM of India had said that the earth shakes when a big tree falls. Let us peep into history. Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was killed by a Chitpavan Brahmin of Pune. Mr. M.K. Gandhi was a much bigger tree than Mrs. Indira Gandhi. Why didn’t the earth shake on Mr. Gandhi’s (a Baniya) assassination and shook only on Mrs. Gandhi’s (a Brahmin) assassination?
How can the 1984 anti-Sikh riots be justified where countrymen kill, loot, molest fellow countrymen, where a government sponsors a pogrom? How can the entire community be held responsible for the actions of a few elements?
Will your good self or any of the readers of your esteemed journal throw some light or analyze?
Farooq Abdulgafar Bawani
Rajkot, Gujarat, India
Make Sure Schools Are Safe
It was distressing to read how a priest in a Catholic school in Telangana was assaulted by right-wing activists. It is the duty of the law enforcement agencies concerned to ensure adequate security to those working at these schools which are providing yeoman service with their educational initiatives, instead of leaving them at the mercy of these elements.
Such attacks also send out a wrong message to the minorities in the country that they and the institutions run by them are not safe. This does not bode well for a secular democracy like ours.
Ahmed Khan
Bengaluru, Karnataka
Ensure Minorities FeelProtected
An advocacy group has claimed that Christians in India face at least two attacks every day. This is really distressing. How can we claim to be the largest secular democracy in the world if we cannot ensure safety and security of the minorities who form a miniscule proportion of the population?
Such minorities are easy targets for vigilante groups with attacks on churches and members of the minority communities having happened many times in the past.
The minorities should be made to feel safe in any part of the country. This is the foremost duty of the Central and respective state governments.
Kiran G.
Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
I beg to invite your kind attention to an article published on the occasion of Dr. Ambedkar’s birthday vide Radiance of 27 April 2024.
It is in the fitness of things that Radiance published an article on the gigantic personality of India who was cent per cent faithful to his community i.e. depressed society. He did not get his due place in history which he genuinely deserves. He never betrayed his society. He was and is marginalized by so-called upper castes because of his caste background. He never compromised when questions of welfare, betterment and injustice done to depressed classes arose.
Dr. Ambedkar has pointed out many times in his writings and speeches as to who are the main culprits of Hindu society. The article does not mention the names of culprits (i.e. Brahmins and Brahminism) which is its drawback. The writer lacks the courage to call a spade a spade.
Farooq Abdulgafar Bawani
Rajkot, Gujarat, India