How can anyone condone this?

T.V.R. Shenoy is one journalist I had always admired. Working with the Malayala Manorama, he pioneered the transformation of the staid and d...

T.V.R. Shenoy is one journalist I had always admired. Working with the Malayala Manorama, he pioneered the transformation of the staid and drab face of Malayalam journalism into a more colorful and appealing one.

It has, therefore, been all the more painful for me to see the degeneration of the objective and upright journalist in Shenoy into a mouthpiece of the sangh parivar.

He has been uncharacteristically silent on the Gujarat violence and therefore I was hoping against hope that the silence was because of his anguish and embarrassment at the happenings there.

However, I was shocked to read his comments in his column, 8216;Seasonal disturbance8217; IE, April 25 although the theme was P.C. Alexander8217;s possible ascendancy to the presidential throne, he used the opening lines to tersely make his views on the Gujarat violence amply clear, quickly destroying any illusion I had in this regard. Shenoy writes, 8216;8216;8230;The reason for the Congress not asking for Modi8217;s ouster is simple: as Congressmen from the state privately admit, the riots in Gujarat are nothing less than certain deeply felt emotions coming to the surface8230;8217;8217; First of all, let us not trivialise what took place in Gujarat with euphemisms like 8216;8216;riots8217;8217;. To me, the closest description one can think of for what happened in Gujarat is the word 8216;8216;genocide8217;8217; 8212; I can8217;t think of another word in my limited vocabulary for systematic and barbaric mass killing of innocents, their only crime being that they were born in a minority community 8212; an event over which none of them had little control. I have heard both the Muslim and Hindu fundamentalists trying to justify the Godhra carnage and the post-Godhra mayhem respectively with fanciful theories. But when journalists like Shenoy try to rationalise the blood-curdling events with comments like, 8216;8216;certain deeply felt emotions coming to the surface8217;8217;, one cannot escape the sense of shock as well as revulsion.

When an anguished nation cries out to remove a chief minister who has lost complete confidence of the minorities, a chief minister who punishes the very few upright police officers who tried to save innocent lives and refused to be part of the state-sponsored massacre, it is scornfully dismissed as 8216;8216;ritual demand for sacrifice8217;8217;. I just cannot understand how civilized humans allow themselves to be associated with the insane inhumans who profess themselves to be the guardians of Hinduism. The Hinduism I know is tolerant, all encompassing, compassionate, loving, understanding, forgiving. This is the strength of Hinduism.

As the Vedic saying goes, strength remains so only as far as it remains unused. If this is seen as sign of weakness, it comes out of ignorance, lack of understanding of the basic tenets of Hinduism. The last thing Hinduism needs is street hoodlums and neighbourhood goons running berserk with trishuls and swords crying for Muslim blood. However much I try to, I just cannot understand the mindset of the people who profess Hindutva and practise all that Hindutva stands against. I would like to enter into a debate with persons like Shenoy who empathise with such people, just to know what is it that they believe in.