Arundhati Roy's Allegations Debunked

[Guest guest]

Note this is my updated,very detailed and referanced rebuttal to

Arundhati Roy's Article.Vrin

 

Dear Friends,

I have put together a rebuttal to Arundathi Roy's defamation of the

RSS-The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangam or the National Selfless Service

or Volunteer Association. http://www.rss.org/

 

Arundathi writes:India — the world's biggest democracy — is currently

at the forefront of the corporate globalization project. Its "market"

of one billion people is being prized open by the WTO.

Corporatization and Privatization are being welcomed by the

Government and the Indian elite.

 

My response:This is a blatantly false statement. India has been at

the forefront of battling the WTO for a fair deal. So much so

that "Several African countries want India to lead the campaign to

safeguard the interests of the developing nations, encouraged by New

Delhi's tough stand at the recently-concluded Geneva parleys on

agriculture at World Trade Organization (WTO). More than a dozen

African countries including Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and

Morocco have urged India to take a lead in all future WTO

negotiations on agriculture to build a common strategy against

flooding of farm items from advanced nations threatening their

domestic agriculture." source

http://www.indiaexpress.com/news/business/20030202-0.html

 

A.Roy labels the BJP as "the men who signed the deal with Enron in

India." Actually they battled Enron relentlessly and saw the collapse

of Enron as a great victory for India. Being a political issue, its

not as simple as that.

"Even US Vice-President Dick Cheney has intervened with Indian

leaders on behalf of Enron and so must have others."

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020121/edit.htm

 

: http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/95/0818/nat1.html Manohar Joshi,

chief minister of Maharashtra, India's richest state, scrapped a

controversial $2.9 billion power project by the U.S. multinational,

Enron Corp. Joshi, whose two-party Hindu nationalist alliance

defeated Rao's Congress (I) party in state elections in March, said

his government was canceling the second phase of the project and

rejecting the first-phase contract already in force. According to

Joshi, the project was too expensive, environmentally hazardous

and "militated against the self-esteem of the people of Maharashtra."

The repeal of the Enron deal, India's largest foreign investment

project ever, was a major blow to Rao's four-year drive to open up

India's economy. And it revealed just how vulnerable Rao's free-

market reforms are to the nation's shifting political winds. Enron's

2,015-megawatt power plant was sanctioned in 1993 by a Maharashtra

government headed by Sharad Pawar, a powerful Congress party satrap.

The project was also approved by the Congress-led federal government,

whose endorsement is mandatory by law.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1351100.stm But it was not the

experts, it was the politicians who took the decisions on Enron. The

project became a political football that was kicked into touch by the

right wing Hindu Bharatya Janata Party or BJP when they were in

opposition, but was revived after fresh negotiations when they were

elected. Now that the BJP no longer rules Maharashtra, the government

is anxious to rid itself of the burden of purchasing Enron's

expensive power. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1351100.stm

http://www.bjp.org/pomi.htm The BJP speaks for itself on the issue.

 

Arundathi writes:The RSS is a right wing, ultra-nationalist Hindu

guild which has openly admired Hitler and his methods.

 

My reply:This is such an outrageous statement but ignoring it won't

settle the issue. First, believing in Race or body type above and

beyond the Soul is completely against Hindu philosophy. So there is

no question of racism on the part of the RSS. The RSS was founded in

1925 long before Hitler assumed power and there is no connection.

Hitler despised Indians and glorified the rule of millions of Indians

by the British.

The Nazi movements abuse of the sacred Hindu/Buddhist Swastika and

the term Aryan is considered a horrible travesty by the Hindus. The

word Aryan is actually Arya and has nothing to do with race but is

rather the term applied to those of noble character regardless of

race or social status. The British were the first to invent the idea

of an Aryan race. This idea was seized upon by the Nazis and to this

day two of Hinduism most sacred ideals are now seen as racist and

hateful. I challenge anyone to find one positive quote by any Hindu

leader about Hitler's philosophy. Of course, during WWII many

colonized people around the world saw Hitler as a great man, not for

his philosophy but because he was the first person to finally punish

the arrogant British Empire. After the truth about the Holocaust was

revealed, no Hindu supported Hitler. The founder of the RSS, Dr

Hedgewar passed away in 1940 long before the end of the war and

therefore he never knew about the effect of Hitler on the world. He

however has never been on record in support of Hitler.

Hitler's book Mein Kamph is very derogatory about Hindus and he

refused to remove these statements when requested by the Anti-British

Indian leader Netaji Subash Bose. Arundathi Roy's arrogance assumes

that her statements are reality without offering any proof. This is

pure slander at its lowest level. Its like calling the NAACP KKK

admirers just because you don't agree with them.

 

A. Roy claims: Hundreds of impoverished farmers are committing

suicide by consuming pesticide. Reports of starvation deaths are

coming in from all over the country.

 

I reply: This is nonsense and another blatant lie. Rather than a

lack of food, for the first time in hundreds of years, India is

completely self sufficient in grain production. There have been

distribution issues but they have been blown out of proportion by an

anti-hindu elite that is dedicated to discrediting the amazing

success of the BJP Central Govt. Also the BJP only controls the

Center and Gujarat and being a real democracy India's states have

almost total control of their individual regions. So to blame the

Central Government for all of India's problems is highly unjust. I

would like to see any other country manage over a billion people,

have over 70,000 citizens killed by terrorists, an ancient

infrastructure, surrounded by enemies and still progress

democratically. China couldn't do it so they chose the genocidal path

of Maoism and still India has nearly caught up with them.The fact is

the current BJP government of India has been one of the most

beneficial for India in hundreds of years. This very fact outrageous

anti-Hindus like A.Roy, thus the campaign of slander and

demonization. Here is a verifiable list of the

BJP Government's Agricultural achievements.

 

Achieved a record foodgrain production of 208.88 mt in 1999-2000.

Largest fruit producer (48 mt), coconut (13 billion nuts) and second

largest producer of vegetables (67.28mt).

Largest producer of milk in world (78.1 mt).

Second in production of rice (89.4 mt).

Wheat production 75.57 mt (1999-2000).

Largest area in world under pulses.

First to evolve cotton hybrid.

Largest producer of sugarcane (309.31 mt).

Possesses more than 56% of the buffaloes in world (8.42 million) and

ranks first in respect of cattle and buffalo, second in goats, third

in sheep and seventh in poultry population (31,320 million egg

production during 1999-2000).

Sixth largest producer of fish in world (55.81 lakh tonnes).

First place in global production of bananas, mangoes, coconuts and

cashew. Horticulture production-fruits, vegetables, flowers, cashew,

spices account for 25% of total agri-exports.

National Agriculture Policy announced to attain an annual growth rate

of 4% plus. States consulted in preparation of Action Plan for

implementation of Policy.

Launched regionally differentiated growth strategy for doubling food

production in 10 years to ensure food and nutritional security.

Under macro-management, 27 on going centrally sponsored schemes

integrated to promote decentralised planning in agriculture.

National Agriculture Insurance Scheme introduced to cover more

farmers, more crops and more risks. Basis to be Panchayat level.

Network of agri-clinics and agri-business centres by agriculture

graduates taken-up to extend self-employment opportunities and reach

of agriculture research upto farmers.

100 percent centrally sponsored National Project for Cattle and

Buffalo breeding cleared, to preserve and improve important

indigenous breeds of cattle and buffalo and to upgrade non-descript

breeds. Seafood exports crossed Rs 4,500 crore.

Amendment to multi-State Cooperative Act to provide more autonomy and

powers to cooperative sector on the anvil. Draft of National Policy

on Food Processing prepared to ensure waste reduction, remunerative

prices to farmers, price stability, employment potential and to

simplify and harmonize existing multifarious laws.

Launched - Jai Vigyan National Science and Technology Mission on

Conservation of Agro-biodiversity, and on household food and

nutritional security.

27 Mission mode projects operationalised under National Agricultural

Technology Project, for focussed research on issues of critical

importance.

A total of 61,015 samples of diverse germplasm procured from 63

countries.

Data on all conserved accessions computerized in National Gene Bank.

 

 

 

 

A.Roy writes: Hindu nationalism and religious fascism. It is

conducting nuclear tests, rewriting history books, burning churches,

and demolishing mosques. Censorship, surveillance, the suspension of

civil liberties and human rights, the definition of who is an Indian

citizen and who is not, particularly with regard to religious

minorities, is becoming common practice now.

 

I reply: The only thing Hindus do not tolerate is demonizing their

ancient culture. No one will tolerate this. The fact is of all the

world's major religions only Hinduism and Buddhism have a record of

tolerance. That's why the Fire worshipers of pre-Islamic Persia ran

to

India and are now called Parsis and are some of the most successful

people in India. The Jews stated that one of the only countries in

the world that they have never been persecuted in is India.

http://www.shashitharoor.com/articles/hindu/research.html

 

India has been a Nuclear power since 1974. The program was begun

under the very secular Indira Gandhi and headed by a Muslim so to

portray it as a Hindu fundamentalist backed project is another

ludicrous statement.

 

As concerned leaders of a threatened country, India's leaders had no

choice but to carry out and develop a powerful arsenal. China invaded

India and feels threatened by the Dalai Lama issue. Pakistan invaded

India 4 times. Unlike the United States, China, and Pakistan, India

has a `No First Use Policy' and has agreed to end nuclear tests.

Surrounded by aggressive neighbors with a record of violence: China,

Pakistan, Bangladesh, India has no choice but to defend itself. To

do otherwise would mean the end of India as a nation.

 

She calls the RSS/BJP right-wing, ultra-nationalists. These are just

terms used to discredit anyone with traditional values and goals. If

the great American Indian leaders Tecumseh, Sitting Bull, Crazy

Horse, Chiefs Joseph and Seattle were alive today, A.Roy would

probably label them as ultra right-wing nationalists as well. The

RSS are modern Indian traditionalists and like the great American

Indian leaders, the RSS struggles to promote, protect, and preserve

their ancient Hindu culture. Rather than the horrific image being

fabricated by A. Roy and her allies, the Marxists, Maoists, Jihadi's

and anti-Hindu secularists, the RSS represents India's role in the

global indigenous renaissance. By having been elected to the Central

Government of India, the RSS/BJP have achieved something wonderful…

Indigenous power on a global level for the first time in five hundred

years.

China's adoption of genocidal Marxist/Maoism is an

abandonment of its ancient traditions and subservience to a Western

Ideology. Japan's consumerism and capitalism is also not a

traditional Asian value system. Only India, under the RSS/BJP rule

can claim to be confronting modern problems within a native Hindu

civilization context. People like A. Roy, in the guise of concerned

Humanism, are trying to strip India of its right to be Indian.

 

The values of traditional Hindu India are the reason India can have

over a billion people and still have room enough for tigers, the last

population of Asian lions, rhinos, and elephants plus take in

hundreds of thousands of Tibetan and Bangladeshi refugees.

 

Roy says Nationalism as if it's a vulgar word, but it is simply the

logical reality of a people wanting to keep their own house in

order. Is the family that focuses on its own needs and issues to be

considered morally corrupt? No, rather the family that does not tend

to its own needs becomes a burden to society. In the same way, a

nation that loses its identity and can not defend or progress itself

disrupts the planet as a whole. Thus Nationalism is a healthy and

necessary function. A. Roy's claim of dismantling democracy as a

goal of the RSS is illogical. It is actually her attempt to disrupt

democracy by using her name and fame to instill fear in the Indian

electorate.

It is ancient Hindu India that is on the record as the World's first

democratic system.

http://www.infinityfoundation.com/ECITdemocracyindiaframeset.htm

As a dedicated Hindu organization, the RSS is naturally promoting

Hindu India's ancient democratic values.

 

 

As for changing History books…that's what happens when new

information is discovered. I'm sure A. Roy isn't demanding India's

children to be force fed outdated and incorrect information? India's

secular Supreme Court agreed the changes are valid, correct and

necessary.

 

She mentions burning churches, demolishing mosques as if that is all

it takes to prove her case. Is she some divine being whose words

weigh more than the truth? Investigation after investigation has

shown that all the `supposed' RSS backed anti-Christian attacks were

all based on individual vendettas and grudges, and had nothing to do

with religion. http://www.sulekha.com/articledesc.asp?cid=290065

 

However, the media, without any proof, prints allegations against

Hindus and then refuses to publish the facts once the investigation

is over. If there is anyone to blame for the violence, it is the

secular media and people like A. Roy who abuse their fame to stir up

fear, anger, hatred, and violence by maliciously slandering the

innocent.

 

The one mosque that was demolished ten years ago had not been in use

for forty-five years and not one person died. Meanwhile, over

seventy thousand Indians have been massacred by terrorists and A. Roy

sees that as trivial compared to the demolition of an old, unused

mosque considered unusable by most Muslims .Even the `big evil boogey-

man' Saddam Hussein considers it a trivial issue compared to the real

dangers facing Muslim civilization.

 

Roy claims censorship. This is probably in regard to various books

and movies that have been made to slander and pervert the image of

India's ancient culture. Even these instances were done in order to

stop people from rioting, rather than thought control. The

government has been censoring anti-Muslim and Christian publications

on a much more frequent basis than it censors anti-Hindu items. This

is done in the name of protecting the sentiments of the minority.

Meanwhile, India's real minority, its Tribal people, are being

subject to cultural and physical genocide by conversion and terrorism.

 

Roy mentions surveillance and suspension of civil rights. Well, too

bad Roy, that's what a country must do when groups like SIMI(Student

Islamic Movement of India) have declared Jihad against India until

every Hindu is either dead or converted. "The SIMI was said to be

closely associated with the Saudi Arabia, Riyadh-based World Assembly

of Muslim Youth (WAMY)..'

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/09/28/stories/0228000a.htm

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/terroristoutfits/simi.ht

m http://www.kashmirherald.com/profiles/simi.html

Such groups gave up their own civil rights and demand surveillance by

repeatedly engaging in aggressive violent behavior. The innocent

citizen's rights must be protected and thus India's government was

forced to act.

 

A.Roy faults the RSS on their definition of who is an Indian

citizen. That's quite ironic when their definition is extremely

broad and all encompassing. They see all Indians, regardless of

religion, to be Hindus, because Hinduism is a way of life and not a

religious belief system.

A.Roy casually mentions two thousand victims of a "state

sponsored pogram." Again she seems to demand our acceptance of her

statement as fact just because she said it. She has already publicly

apologized for making false statements in this regard. None of the

horrific claims made have been proven, but actually it's quite the

opposite. All of these outrageous claims have been proven false.

No doubt riots happened as they have ever since the British

instituted their divide and rule policy, but to blame it on Narendra

Modi CM of Gujarat is legal slander and libel. Actually, over eighty

percent of Gujarat was peaceful and the claims of organized pogroms

are pure propaganda originating from the offices of Pakistan's Secret

Service: ISI, the infamous founder of the Taliban.

 

Roy ignores the burning alive of nearly fifty Hindu women and

children that precipitated the riots. This proves her bias. The only

difference between March 2002's Gujarat riots and many other riots is

the political spin it has been given by the Ideological adversaries

of India's Hindu Renaissance.

 

It is quite shameful and beneath the dignity of one such as A. Roy to

take advantage of suffering and death to enhance her reputation. The

fact is, she is assuming the role of the wise Indian Guru and talking

down to us Westerners as if we are ignorant fools. She is taking

advantage of the sincere efforts of the alternative western culture's

ideals and hopes to belittle our intelligence with her unverifiable

accusations.

 

Forgetting the democratic value of innocent until proven guilty, she

has crowned herself judge, jury, and executioner, and she lets the

facts be damned. She sees herself as an elite above and beyond the

ignorant Indian masses that have dared to democratically elect her

ideological opponents, the BJP, into office. To her horror, once in

power, the BJP has managed to make India one of the world's most

empowered nations on earth.

 

She thus closes her anti-India tirade by using the same threat often

voiced by Al-Qaeda, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, "There are

100,000,000 Muslims in India, a time bomb threatening to go off."

 

The question is, why is the supposed champion of equality, justice,

and truth parroting the global Jihadi terrorist movement? Why

doesn't she mention that India's Muslims enjoy more rights and

privileges than those living in any Muslim country? She also

neglects to mention that the current President of India is a Muslim.

In conclusion, the verifiable facts have exposed Arundhati Roy's

prejudiced nature and lack of integrity. It is always a shame to

lose a hero, but Arundhati Roy's campaign against her own people and

country are a great discredit to her reputation.END

Vrin Parker

Feb 7,2003

vrinparker

 

Title: Arundhati Roy Claims about Gujarat proved false

>Author: Vivek Gumaste

>Publication: Sulekha.com

>URL: http://www.sulekha.com/articledesc.asp?cid=290065

"Writing >about the Gujarat riots, Arundhati Roy had this to say

(Outlook, May

>6,2002).

> >"A mob surrounded the house of ex-Congress MP Iqbal Ehsan Jaffri.

His

>phone calls to the director-general of police, the police

>commissioner, the chief secretary, the additional chief secretary

>(home) were ignored. The mobile police vans around his house did not

>intervene. The mob broke into the house. They stripped his daughters

>and burnt them alive. Then they beheaded Jaffri and dismembered

him."

>

>

>The description is graphic; the veracity of the incident taken

almost

>for granted coming from a writer of Arundhati Roy's reputation. But,

>alas, that's where we make the mistake. Fame and honesty are not

>interlinked as the following paragraph clearly indicates.

>

>

>Jaffri was killed in the riots but his daughters were

>neither 'stripped' nor 'burnt alive.' T.A. Jafri, his son, in a

front-

>page interview titled Nobody knew my father's house was the target

>(Asian Age, May 2, Delhi edition), says, "among my brothers and

>sisters, I am the only one living in India. And I am the eldest in

>the family. My sister and brother live in the US. I am 40 years old

>and I have been born and brought up in Ahmedabad."

>

>

>So if Ehsan Jaffri had only one daughter (singular) who was safe and

>sound in the US, where did Roy get her facts about not one, but

>daughters (plural) being stripped and burnt? Was it the fantasy of a

>writer's mind? Or was it willful deceit aimed at maligning her

>ideological adversaries?

>

>

>Arundhati Roy did apologise for her mistake in a letter published in

>Outlook May 27, 2002. Could this have been a genuine mistake, one is

>tempted to ask? But when such 'mistakes' occur periodically, the

>chances of them being accidental appear remote. They appear to be in

>fact calculated machinations aimed at achieving a specific goal as

>the following incident further proves.

>

>

>In the same article, Roy claims.

>

>

>"Last night a friend from Baroda called. Weeping. It took her

fifteen

>minutes to tell me what the matter was. It wasn't very complicated.

>Only that Sayeeda, a friend of hers, had been caught by a mob. Only

>that her stomach had been ripped open and stuffed with burning rags.

>Only that after she died, someone carved 'OM' on her forehead."

>Disturbed by the thought of such a ghastly act, Balbir Punj (a BJP

>MP) had this matter investigated. In Outlook (Jul 08, 2002) he

wrote.

>

>

>"Shocked by this despicable 'incident,' I got in touch with the

>Gujarat Government. The police investigations revealed that no such

>case, involving someone called Sayeeda, had been reported either in

>urban or rural Baroda. Subsequently, the police sought Roy's help to

>identify the victim and seek access to witnesses who could lead them

>to those guilty of this crime. But the police got no cooperation.

>Instead, Roy, through her lawyer, replied that the police had no

>power to issue summons. Why is she hedging behind technical

excuses?"

>

>

>So when asked to prove her allegations, Arundhati Roy developed cold

>feet; definitely not the attitude of a crusader for truth."

>