“Fuck this infantile conversation! “How “secular” is it for the Indian state to spend crores on the Hajj?”" Thanks for calling it as it is. It is amazing how the Hajj point (in total ignorance of other things) has been used and abused in Hindutva-talk, to justify everything from communal riots to fetus-ripping pogroms, in the true spirit of Goebbelspeak. The point you make about bar associations banning members from taking up cases of young Muslims accused of terrorism charges and who would mostly be acquitted if tried is a truly tragic reminder of how backward a country India essentially remains. To Amarinder and other fair-minded apologists for Sonal Shah and remote control Yankee Hindutva- this is how your indirect support translates back in India.

But only for that.

The rest of the things you point to (with your own gloss, which is different from mine) were my opinions. Not sure why you should apologise for that.

I did not attribute you a narrative, your narrative is your narrative, I just said I am familiar with it, over many years of interaction with both hardcore Leftists and their co-travellers. Broadly speaking, it is a good-bad narrative, with one side good and the other side bad, and good doesn’t talk to, or even look at, the bad. Not all that different from Bush’s. The right-wing folks have their equivalent good-bad narrative. Most of the time it leads to screaming behavior from both sides.

I am more supportive of narratives that is closer to the Obama one, where viewpoints are considered valid, and the effort is not to label something good/bad and build up offence-lists, but to listen, seek out common grounds and build bridges. This requires, and leads to, work on the ground, and only that helps heal wounds.

Basically, I think if you are trying to build bridges, you are part of the solution. If you are screaming, you are part of the problem. Or worse, amplifying the problem. There are some bridges in the works, but as is the case with most things in India, they are a little strange, and I am not sure they lead anywhere. But it is not talking time yet.

Anyway, it was nice chatting, but my real life has started picking up speed, so gotta go.

Huh? I suspect you read too fast, it says clearly in that post they’ve alternated.

Sorry about that! I apologize embarassedly!

But only for that. The rest of your comments, from attributing a narrative to me that I don’t hold (I don’t even know what you’re referring to – is it the CPI(M) narrative? Is it something else?) to defending American Hindutva by way of arguing that American Zionism is superduper to fully misunderstanding what I was arguing about social chaos (that your choices at that point are a government responsive to the poor on economic grounds or through fascist populism) are all not so superduper.

kayastha_lady, Before displaying your idiocy out in the public , go ahead and read about the the significance of swastika symbol in hinduism,

Too late.

But I suspect that kayastha_lady is a joke account – nobody can really be that clueless about dharmic religions and swastikas.

“We have accepted that hinduism is a religion, without bothering to point out the absurdities of this claim. We accept that hindus worship without knowing what worship means. We accept that pandits are priests without knowing what a priest really is. We accept that hindus have certain beliefs when in fact you will never be able to find a common set of beliefs. We complain that our parents did not teach us what hinduism is, without it ever striking us that maybe there is no such thing. I guess everyone goes into medicine and engineering and it leaves no-one to study cultures, so that it part of of the problem.”

but if you don’t even know that the CPI(M) in Kerala has alternated power with Congress…

Huh? I suspect you read too fast, it says clearly in that post they’ve alternated.

BTW, I am from Kerala and read Malayalam papers every day. I also have very close connections to the CPM’s national leadership. I know your narrative so well that I can write it in my sleep, it is the same old jaded stuff that doesn’t work.

Just so that you know, CPM is fast becoming a Hindu party in Kerala. Now happy frothing!

This will happen even if a social-democratic front comes into being. Governments don’t have much control over social chaos. The Marxists are now in power in Kerala, and have been every other five years from 1950s. They could’ve annulled the money grab from temples, or created a level playing field by grabbing from churches and mosques as well. Either of these moves would’ve neutralised one of the biggest arguments of the VHP, and lowered their recruiting abilities. But the successive CPM governments decided to keep the status quo, and even went further by carving out a Muslim-majority district, where Friday is the official holiday for schools. And now the RSS has significant ground presence and support in Kerala. So having a social democratic government is one thing, social chaos is quite another. As for the projected fascism, you could equally argue that the CPM, along with Naxalites, would soon take over India and establish a Communist state with China’s support. Their ideologies are much more closer, and have a much more established history of repression than the VHP’s. I don’t find such crystal-balling based on loose analogies very persuasive, especially given the largely ho-hum histories of BJP governments.

No offense, but if you don’t even know that the CPI(M) in Kerala has alternated power with Congress or that Hindutva politics has until very recently been far more dominant in the North than in the South, there’s really no point in trying to carry forward a discussion about politics in India…as Nizam said above, what country are you looking at?