Parzania

Not to show any disrespect to the Modys, but

Will some of our ultra secular self proclaimed intellectuals, make a movie on the people who lost their lives, roasting to death in an iron box on rails, many of whom were not even related to the VHP. (Pretty much like Modys who had nothing to do with the riots).
Any one to take our pictures and make someone amongst us the posterboy of our sufferings? Anyone to make a movie on the Hindus of Ahmedabad, where muslims entered housing societies armed with swords, threatened to rape womenfolk and started the riots immediately hours after the train burning. Did anyone notice that it wasnt spontaneous, it was a planned terrorist attack.

You ask me to see your pain. Till you see mine in return, I am comfortably numb.

@ Shadows:
Have you seen The Final Solution by Rakesh Sharma? Its not a movie, its a documentary and if you haven’t seen it, watch it. I bet henceforward you will stop your routine commentary on how always Muslims are to blame. The documentary takes no sides but shows the sufferings of both sides and lays down bare facts and leaves it open for interpretation. And only a dumb idiot would watch it and say “Oh absolutely…only this community was at fault”.

Mitesh,

With all respect,

From the title of the documentary, I have the idea of what to expect.

I find it strange that the documentary is called the Final Solution. Either they want to show that the deaths of a thousand muslims is equal to the deaths of over a million Jews (what about the equal number of Hindus who died too - ignored), or they are intentionally being insensitive to the Jews, by reducing the scale of their suffering.

I dont need to watch such documentaries. I was visiting my relatives in Gujarat that time. I have heard first hand accounts of people who faced it. Have you ever had muslims wielding swords in your apartment building compound, asking people to send their women to get raped. On the day the train was burnt. The riots hadnt even started. Of course, the filmmakers cannot directly blame anyone, they have to show a balanced view. Now now now, If i think about it, even I am hesitant to blame anyone for that. But then, for how long ?? How long should we tolerate terrorism because we are supposed to be secular.

Maybe Mitesh, you would change your views if you come very close to death by such fanatics. I missed the exact Bus No 340 which was bombed once (it could have been me, a statistic, on that bus), and my dad had passed the spot where the Stock Exchange was bombed in 92, just a few minutes before the blast.
I travelled in the Sabarmati Express to Lucknow, just a fortnight after the burning. The Godhra station was deserted, only armed policemen were patrolling. I saw that burnt coach too. Much more ugly than all the pictures you have ever seen on the papers and Internet.

I bet henceforward you will stop your routine commentary on how always Muslims are to blame.

Should I, for a change, blame us ?

>> From the title of the documentary, I have the idea of what to expect.

Well, you haven’t seen it, but if you see it, you would know that the title ‘Final Solution’ is a question mark as the documentary maker set out to find some solution to these riots amongst religious fanatics, but couldn’t apparently. The documentary ends with a young Muslim kid (whose parents were slaughtered) being asked the question “what would you like to be when you grow up” and the kid answers I would like to be a soldier and kill all Hindus. The interviewer says “I am also a Hindu, will you kill me too?”. The kid replies “No you are a good Hindu. Only bad hindus”. War deaths only breed more killers.

>> I dont need to watch such documentaries.
You need to. We all need to. Both muslim and hindu families have been interviewed; both have been shown to suffer losses; both lost lives and property. Muslims have described hindu extremists getting down from trucks and running on streets with orange cloth around their forehead, with sword in one hand and mobile phone in the other. At the same time, hindus have described muslims throwing acid bottles onto hindu colony. They have even shown the real culprits (in my opinion): the local politicians at panchayat and district level as well as some top VHP ones, giving inflammatory speeches at public gatherings.
Output of all this: Women were raped, shops were looted, kids were orphaned and scarred permanently. So its always innocent who suffer the most and they can be both hindus and muslims…not hindus alone. And while this may sound cliched and being said everywhere over and over again, it is true isn’t it?

I am glad that you are safe even though you have narrowly missed such ghastly events as you described. And you are right, yes I havent been close to any such event yet. And maybe my opinions might change then. But, I will try not to. Bcoz, we need to look at the bigger picture. Its very natural to form opinions from what we directly experience, but until we hear what happened on the other side, the picture is incomplete.

If it matters at all, the documentary was made by a Hindu, banned in India for a long time and won several awards.

I wonder why is it that in every part of India wherever any terrorist act happens the culprit is a Muslim. In drug trafficking, smuggling, illegal arms manufacture, anti-National activity and similar other acts Muslims are involved. I wish someone could have made a documentary on how during the night of January 19 - 20, 1990 Muslims from the Mosques throughout the Kashmir Valley shouted on loudspeakers “O Kashmiri Pandits leave the Valley immediately with your families but without young ladies & girls. I wish media & NGOs could take notice of Bitta Karate who admitted of having massacarred 19 Kashmiri Pandits but has been set free by the courts. Instead of taking care of the families of Kashmiri Pandits massacarred by likes of Bitta Karate neither Govt. of India nor Govt. of J&K the killers have been given Rs. 3 Lakhs and monthly dole of Rs. 3,000/- In Kashmir there was no VHP or Bajrang Dal. Only tragedy with Kashmiri Pandit has been his secularism & Nationalism. In the end I pray for Unity of India despite the acts being executed to disintegrate it by forces like SIMI etc.

Sakshi: The film looks quite compelling, hope I can watch it sometime soon as it doesn’t seem to be out on DVD here in Sydney yet!

Mitesh,

With all due respect again, I choose to disagree. Its not that I am driven by hate, I have lot of valid and genuine reasons to do so.
Yes, innocent do suffer. It is true. The question still remains unanswered - Why? And what can we do when we are attacked. Who started it? Apart from the current topic, Do our pundits tell us to go and kill Muslims just because they call God by some other name, and worship some stone building in the arab desert instead of stone idols? I could go on, but I might digress.

Even Deepa Mehta and Mira Nair films win awards . All she has to do is just add some snakes and snake charmers, and show some elephants holding up traffic.

Ohh, and By the way, bad Hindus… Well, for them, anyone who is not a Muslim is bad. You may actually have Muslim friends, they will be nice to you etc. But, I have noted that deep down, they consider us lower than them, and carry a superiority complex, just based on their faith. They consider all of us bad. Well, not all of them are like that, but a good number of them are.

Well, Kashmiri ,,
I have heard all that. Sad.

A friend just forwarded me the URL. Thank you for all your comments Mitesh, Shadows and Utsa.

For those who haven’t seen the film yet, you can contact me on aaabombay@yahoo.com

Shadows - I’m now ready with a follow up film, specifically focussing only on Hindutva footsoldiers - those arrested in 2002 on rioting/ arson charges etc. Of the 1577 hindus arrested and lodged at the Sabarmati jail, only 30 were upper caste…the rest were Dalits and OBCs. What do they feel today about the violence and their own role in it, after they were cynically used, exploited, discarded and left to rot in jails….

Perhaps you’d be interested at least in this “hindu” voice, even if you do not want to watch Final Solution?

Regards
Rakesh