The View from the Right

The second piece on the front page is on the communal riots in Mau in Uttar Pradesh. Headlined ‘Mau: Riot of Muslim intolerance’, writer Sandhya Jain alleges that ‘‘the Muslims of Mau wanted, through a display of extreme bigotry, to force Hindus to not celebrate auspicious dharmic functions and surrender their community identity for the sake of a false communal harmony.’’

Editorials

The first of the two edits decries the ‘Politics of Muslim Reservation’ and accuses politicians of brazenly violating the letter and spirit of the Constitution by providing reservations on religious lines. Pointing out that the Constitution allows reservation for those castes which have been socially subjugated for centuries, it says, ‘‘Both Christianity and Islam claim not to distinguish their followers among castes. So how can reservation for them be justified?’’ It attacks Andhra Pradesh chief minister for announcing five per cent reservation in educational institutions for Muslims and accuses DMK and AIADMK of ‘‘competitive bidding for the Muslim vote.’’ The editorial concludes with the line: ‘‘In India’s secular polity Hindu is fast becoming the most oppressed community.’’

The second edit, entitled ‘Open LoC and national security’ states that in its diplomacy with Pakistan, ‘‘India follows Gen Musharraf as the Pied Piper. The General proposes and India concurs.’’ Decrying India’s offer of providing relief to POK, it says, ‘‘An open soft border is what the fifth columns (sic) in India have been demanding as a price India has to pay for friendship with Pakistan. And the UPA government has conceded it, in the garb of humanitarianism.’’

US Congress hearings on Dalits

Slamming the US Congress’s decision to hold hearings on the status of Dalits in India, writer Sandhya Jain says it is not just “a gross interference in our internal affairs’’ but also an attempt to influence the Supreme Court hearing on reservation rights for dalit converts to religions like Christianity. Like the front page article, this one too indulges in Sonia-bashing. ‘‘The silence of the Indian government, remote-controlled by the Roman Catholic Italy-born Sonia Gandhi, is disturbing,’’ it notes in big bold letters.

Column

Organiser’s long time columnist M.V. Kamath too trains his guns on the Nehru-Gandhi family in his piece on ‘Dynastic rule in India.’ Rahul Gandhi, he says, ‘‘seems destined to continue the Nehru-Gandhi line as Congress party leaders and less hopefully as Prime Minister as well. According to Kamath, ‘‘If Rahul has any rival, it is own sister Priyanka but instead of pushing her, mother has indulged in gender discrimination to promote her son.’’ In a left handed compliment, he adds, ‘‘And that is very much in Indian cultural tradition.’’

Exclusive

The issue also carries an ‘‘exclusive’’ by a Russian sociologist named Alexander Zinoviev on how to achieve ‘‘a successful mass conversion of Muslims to Hinduism’’ and suggests the creation of an Order of Hermit-Warriors (sadhu-preachers and warriors) to begin the ‘‘fight against Islam.’’ The article also says that the Hindu middle class ‘‘must adopt a fertile line of behaviour following the example of the Jews in Israel since the demographic situation in India and Israel is pretty much alike, and the enemy of both the nations is the same.’’

Compiled by Manini Chatterjee