Nitin (from The Acorn) has this gem of a comment on RealityCheck’s post from the day of Ash-Abhi (or is it Abhi-Ash) wedding: “Around the Blogosphere“:
“Mr Arjun Singh is in a hole. And he�s trying to get out of it by digging ever more.
You would think that�s a bad strategy of getting out of the hole.
But he�s perhaps counting that if he digs a sufficiently wide hole, everyone will be in it�(sorry for this tortuous metaphor, but these are extraordinary times)”
Brilliant!

Some of you must have already come across this piece of news mentioning how Dalits were barred from entering the Jagannath Temple in Kendrapara which led to their subsequent conversion to Buddhism.
The issue has been simmering for a while now (see this “Priests to purify Orissa temple after Dalit entry” ) and there was mention of conversion in the past too: “Orissa: Dalits threaten to convert“.
So whats news?

The news is the conspicuous silence of the RSS, the VHP, the Bajrang Dal and others on this matter.
The RSS news-site* (Pl …

Our honourable Railways Minister Shri Yadav made the headlines again last week with his promise that �priority would be given to Muslims in appointments in all sectors of the Railways.�
Now thats a great statement�except I am not at all sure what this means in practice.
Is it that all things being equal they would be preferred over a say, Hindu or Christian candidate?
Or would they be preferred even if they come short on some of the criteria as compared to other candidate(s)? If so, what is the �margin� (or �premium� or …

Credit to the NT Bureau in Chennai for this story: “Gita and Ramayana will be burnt, says Veeramani“
“Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) president K Veeramani has warned that the sacred book of the Hindus, the Bhagawad Gita and the Indian epic Ramayana, would be burnt as part of a demonstration to be organised soon.�
Participating in the Maniammayar birth anniversary day celebrated by the party’s women’s wing as Women liberation day, Veeramani…alleged that Ramayana, one of the oldest and well known epics of the world, besmirched women.
…The DK leader also said that the …

I agonized for a long time before deciding to go ahead with posting the story on destruction and vandalism at temples in South India, “Was this a cover-up or blind omission?”.
Why?
Largely because I wanted to be sure to hear the “other side” of the story and if possible, present it side-by-side to this report so that readers were able to make an informed judgement about the circumstances and what actually happened in those few weeks late last year..
Although that would have been ideal, the reality was that I did …

This is another (truly shocking) example of a “blind” media…
I first read about this�shortly after RC put it on his blog�last December, “A statue story from the south”� (must read)
As he wrote (at that time), “Due to the absence of coverage in the mainstream english media (CNN-IBN is running yet another headline about who is greater King Khan or Big Bee). Here is a compilation from the vernacular print media about the recent events in the state of Tamilnadu.� This time it has nothing to do with Dalits like in …

This is by a long shot one of the best critiques that I have come across of “Water”. It is balanced and makes all the points in a crisp, logical way
Please read and circulate widely. It needs to get more attention. Use this link in your email while forwarding the article
“Water – A Review” by Ramkumari Ramsundar
“Deepa Mehta’s latest film on Indian society “Water” has recently been screened to plaudits and praise from Western intelligentsia whilst at the same time arousing the concerns – and even ire – of the …

Deepa Mehta is shocked at Kunal Kohli’s remark that he would have preferred “Rang De Basanti” winning over “Water” at the Oscars.
In her comment she also said, “Caste and gender discrimination…(have) as much relevance today as they did 100 years ago.” Really?
Is the acclaimed film-maker saying that nothing at all has changed in the last 100 years?
Or is it that “caste and gender discrimination” are two topics that just happen to conveniently confirm the familiar stereotypes about India in the West? – and of course, happen to be easier to …

I recently came across a post titled “The Real Problem is not Islam” on this blog to which I added the comment posted below.
The reason for posting my comment here is to highlight the need to counter some basic mis-conceptions about Hinduism such as [a] it is no different from any other religion in promoting violence [b] the very nature of religion makes it intolerant of non-believers (certainly not true of Hinduism) [c] �A Hindu state or the Christian state would treat its minorities the same way as the Islamic …

…to upliftment and betterment of Dalits, backwards�and Muslims…
From the Time of India, 7th Dec ’06 (article by Subodh Ghildiyal):
“Tectonic shift: Dalits find new vistas in private sector” Excerpts:
“NEW DELHI: Jhumur Das sits with a telephone in a Kolkata building and dishes out advice to callers from cities she has only heard about. She is a customer care executive with Aegis BPO.
Nothing surprising. Except that the young graduate, from an extremely modest Dalit family, left Hooghly a few months ago to stay alone in the crowded capital and be a career …