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'Can Anjana Mishra be ignored because she isn't a nun?'

How Readers reacted to Vir Sanghvi's last column

Date sent: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 11:18:56 -0800
From: "Kuppahalli, Sameer" <sameer.kuppahalli@intel.com>
Subject: We told you so!

This is the most comical version of "Man who thought he saw tomorrow". I have been regularly reading Vir Sanghvi, and there was nothing prophetic about his columns. All he used to do (and still does) was rant off some buzzwords as things happened (and mind you, with no facts). Predicting that the moribund Congress and its cronies in the media will pay obeisance to Sonia Gandhi is like predicting that the sun will rise tomorrow. But still, Vir Sanghvi has done a good job of congratulating himself.

Now for some rebuttal: "The reason why the fascists have not taken over is Vajpayee. Proving conventional wisdom right on his essential decency, he has held firm, even going so far as to propose declaring 1999 as the year of the Christian at a time when his party cadres were running around looking for Bibles to burn and bishops to bully. On the masjid issue he gave an undertaking to Parliament that nothing would be built at Ayodhya, much to the dismay of the VHP."

Yes the same Bibles and the same big bully bishops who were forcing hapless (my turn to use the word) students to sign the dotted line..."Our god is greater than yours..." and all that. It is only when the parents of these students complained, the VHP and Bajrang Dal swung into action. It doesn't mean everyone who reacts is a fascist. Not everyone like you is smitten by Sonia Gandhi.

Then he rambles on: "His stubbornness has provoked a fall-out. Assorted knickerwallahs, who you and I know little about, (men with names like Thengdi and Sudershan) are claiming the government has betrayed "its mandate." (What mandate? Who voted for Thengdi or Kushabhau or any of the others in the khaki-knicker-bandy-leg brigade?) They are rallying around Advani and the fault lines in the government are all too visible."

If people like Sudarshan and Thengadi are little known, then why do you care anyway? The reason you care is because these men command the respect of a few million Indians and have considerable influence on the electorate. And if the RSS people have worked hard to see a BJP govt at the Centre, it is only natural that they want their programmes to be implemented. The BJP came to power when they had projected swadeshi very strongly in its manifesto. So is it any rocket-engineering to conclude that swadeshi needs to be the theme of governance? Hypothetically, the likes of Vir Sanghvi would have questioned the motives of Mahatma Gandhi too, when he wanted swadeshi to be the theme-song.

And finally, is Vir Sanghvi planning to write an article on the gang-rape of Anjana Mishra in Orissa? Or, that can be ignored because she is not a nun? Or because Sonia Gandhi has gagged you because Orissa has a Congress govt?

Date sent: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 16:20:32 -0000
From: HALPETH Mahesh <Mahesh.Halpeth@cellnet.co.uk>
Subject: On the Year Gone By

At last, an answer to the Communist Varsha Bhosle! Keep writing Mr Sanghvi ... You've got great style!

Mahesh 'Mashya'

Date sent: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 10:46:38 -0600
From: amit a sahasrabudhe <amit.a.sahasrabudhe@mail.sprint.com>
Subject: We told you so!

Vir Sanghvi writes: "His stubbornness has provoked a fall-out. Assorted knickerwallahs, who you and I know little about, (men with names like Thengdi and Sudershan) are claiming the government has betrayed 'its mandate.' (What mandate? Who voted for Thengdi or Kushabhau or any of the others in the khaki-knicker-bandy-leg brigade?) They are rallying around Advani and the fault lines in the government are all too visible."

In this, Sanghvi gives offence to the names 'Thengdi' & 'Sudershan' He can choose to remain ignorant of these people ("I know little about") - that's his choice; but I sincerely don't understand who gives him the right (or MANDATE, to choose his own lingo) to mention the last names "Thengdi" and "Sudershan" in such a bad light. Perhaps he must have got carried away in the over-exuberance of bashing the Sangh Parivar, but that doesn't justify making such crude remarks about somebody's last names. I hope he would make necessary amends about these remarks in his next column.

A Rediff Regular

Vir Sanghvi