Author: Arvind Lavakare,
Mumbai
Publication: The Indian
Express
Date: September 29,
2000
Sir: Kuldip Nayar's rantings
against the RSS (IE, Sept. 26) have become so regular they're probably
unfit for the cause of recycled newsprint that your esteemed daily supports.
The time has come to
educate "intellectuals" and "secularists" like Nayar about the word "saffron"
which they use in the pejorative sense without applying whatever petty
mind they may have.
During the debate in
our Constituent Assembly on the colour scheme and design of free India's
national flag, one member said: "Everywhere it is admitted that India has
got a great spiritual message to send out to the different countries of
the world. Saffron, as is well known, is the colour of all those people
who We the spiritual life not only among the Hindus but also among Muslims.
Therefore, the saffron colour should remind us that we should keep ourselves
on that high place of renunciation which has been the realm of sadhus and
saints, pirs and pandits."
Those wise words were
uttered not by Sardar Patel or K M. Munshi, but by Md Saadulla who was
later a member of the (institution Drafting Committee. Will all anti-saffron
"secularists" please note?
