Bamiyan Brouhaha (Letter to Editor)

Author: M G Vaidya, Nagpur
Publication: The Times of India
Date: March 8, 2001

Your editorial `The Buddha Smiles' (March 5) runs on predictable lines. Even before reading the whole piece, it came to my mind that you would certainly compare the Taliban with the sangh parivar. Therefore, I wonder whether your secular logic and anti-RSS bias will allow you to appreciate the difference between the demolition of the Buddha's statues and that of the Babri structure. The Bamiyan statues were not erected by destroying or desecrating any existing structure or idol or place of worship; nor was it flaunted as a symbol of a victor's arrogance. The Babri mosque was constructed by destroying an existing temple, to flaunt the disdain of the victor for the conquered. There was no paucity of land on the bank of the Sarayu for a mosque to be constructed.

I am sure that the writer of this piece must be a Hindu, I mean a secular Hindu. After all, no other people in the world are so much in love with self-abnegation as to miss the distinction between a robber, who attacks, kills, conquers and forcibly occupies another's property and the original owner who tries to pay him back in the same coin, when all other peaceful measures fail to get the forcible occupation vacated.
 

Back                          Top