Of Rs 50,000 and loss of credibility…

This is a sad story of what happened to a meeting arranged with a sense of purpose and responsibility by Vigil in Chennai to discuss Gautier’s exhibition and the administration’s response to it.

Against the backdrop of the cancelled exhibition, Vigil had invited Dr Subramaniam Swamy and Shri C P Radhakrishnan (National Executive Member of the BJP) to speak on the “Politics of History and Minorityism“.

They both agreed to come and Vigil spent a significant amount of money and effort in spreading word of the event (see ad below).

Vigil Meeting       At 1230 on the day of the meeting, Radha-ji of Vigil got a call from Dr Swamy who conveyed his inability to come as he had to go for some *urgent* work to Delhi. 

Shri Radhakrishnan excused himself saying he was not feeling well.

Vigil had booked an auditorium for 8000 rupees for the evening and spent a whopping 42,000 rupees on ads about the meeeting in 3 important newspapers in Chennai. 

The money went down the drain…

Did Shri Swamy really had some urgent business in Delhi? and was Shri Radhakrishnan feeling so unwell that he could not even come to the event?

We may never know.

What we do know is that politicians (of any hue) can never be trusted to honour their committments. What we do know is that Shri Swamy and the BJP lost a great opportunity to outline their position on freedom of speech, the “politics of history” and related issues. What we do know is that the cancelled meeting conveyed the impression that rowdy-ism and goonda-giri will prevail over reason and freedom of speech.

What we do know is in the Bharat of today, for politicians to speak about (or on) certain issues is akin to committing harakiri.

What we do know is politics of opportunism will always trump politics of reason as long as clear thinking people stay out of “this dirty thing” and/or otherwise remain silent.

Vigil lost Rs 50,000 yesterday…But Shri Swamy and the BJP lost a lot more.

They lost their credibility.

You may also like...

6 Responses

  1. Ashwani Aheer says:

    Let Dr.Swami & Radhakrishanan contribute Rs 50000 each and hold a function for their speaches on the scheduled subjects on the same place and beg thier pardon from the invited audiance and explain the reasons why did they ditch the earlier function administratives exact at the last moment when nothing could have been done except feeling sad.
    VIGIL should have at least used the occasion to explain to the audience the reasons of these VIP’s failur. They sould have utilised the function to educate the listners to see the coming dangers to hindu society.If Hindus didnt wake up and see all around them in politics,media,jihad,missionaries,communists and macaulism ie enemies of hinduism in different shades.
    IF HINDUS ARE NOT UNITED TO CAPTUR A MAJORITY IN
    PARLIAMENT TO RULE THIS HINDUSTHAN UNDER THE HINDUTVA FLAG DECLARING IT AS HINDU NATION,THEY WILL BE SIGNING THIER DEATH-WARRANT IN THE COMMING YEARS.

  2. raji giridhar says:

    what we do know is that somebody out there must have pressurised these two men not to attend the meeting, they might have been warned of “dire consequences”.(?).
    what we do know is that BJP may try to have a political alliance
    sometime in the future with DMK, which is a chamcha for muslims. this must have caused the headache forCPR.poor man.
    what we dont know is why Mr.Swamy backed out? that is a million dollar question. he could jolly well have postponed his trip.
    what we dont know is who is real and who is fake

  3. Ram S Pejawar says:

    There are many instances when such ’eminent’ people back out irrespective of the party they belong.
    It reflects that even if you are hindu by birth, many tenets of hinduism are not practised whilst giving ‘bhashans’
    This many of us have have seen and continously happening. We can only hope this is the nadir and soon our country will come out of the clutches of of such politicians at present in our parliament

  4. jagdish shetty says:

    I do not know why this hue and cry on one meeting cancelled. It is no doubt that lot of efforts and money is lost by the organiser. Just because one fails to attend one meeeting one does not attributes and suspect their motives. I have heard that Dr. Swamy has a reputation to be puncutal and to his committment.

    Why all this attacks on these two speakers now and calling hem ugly names ?? !! Then why did the organisers invite themin the first place.

  5. B Shantanu says:

    Aswani, Raji, Ram and Jagdish: Thanks for your comments.

    ***

    @ Jagdish: I think this was not just *any* meeting..It had a particular significance because of the circumstances of the cancelled exhibition…

    But I take your point that “Just because one fails to attend one meeeting one does not attributes and suspect their motives.”

    Agreed.

    One can perhaps give Shri Swamy the benefit of doubt…and if he does decide to make public his views on this issue once he is back, that would go a long way in restoring his credibility…

    By the way, I dont think anyone has called Shri Swamy or Shri Radhakrishnan “ugly names”…What I did say is that they had lost some of their credibility.

    Personally, I hold Dr Swamy in high regard. His intellectual prowess is undoubted and who am I to speak ill of him, given his stature?

    It is just that one feels sad when “let down” by people and leaders from whom one has certain expectations.

    To partially “atone” for my harsh words, here is a *vintage* piece by Shri Swamy: “Basic Islam for Hindu Dhimmis” written a while ago…still worth a read .

    I might carry excerpts in another post.

    P.S. The article is also circulating on the net under this title: “Islamic Fundamentals for Hindu Dummies”

  6. Indian says:

    Hi Shantanu, and everyone there

    I just came to know about this site http://www.speaksanskrit.org/vishvavani/index.shtml

    May be many of you know about this site, but I came across today only.