Gautam Sen, presumably an NRI, was “recently in India,” and is shocked by what he calls the secular state’s attack on Hindus. He is amazed by educated Indians who defend Sonia Gandhi. “They visit temples, but simultaneously excoriate something they exasperatedly describe as Hindu extremism.” Sen leads his argument to the death of Rizwanur Rahman. “This is the backdrop to the remarkable case of the unspeakably self-indulgent and stupid Calcutta girl who ran away with her now deceased paramour who became her husband... The objection of Hindu parents to a Muslim groom stems from the fact that she will be invariably required to convert, resulting in her eventual permanent separation from them and the loss of their future grandchildren as well. Significantly, both families sought the religious conversion of the partner marrying their offspring. The woman’s family was not poised to gain a son-in-law as much as definitively lose a daughter, their own flesh and blood, completely. To insinuate this ought to be a non-issue merely illustrates utter bad faith. Of course the apostasy of a Muslim woman marrying outside her faith and the Sharia punishment of death for the transgression was not considered worthy of discussion.”

Buddhadeb revealed

The Organiser’s editorial is on the Nandigram issue. “Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is unrepentant about the bloodbath in Nandigram. So is the CPM politburo” it says. “It is not surprising that the Marxists have closed ranks and reacted the way they did. In fact, they were the ones who masterminded the inhuman and heinous brutalities in Nandigram. It is for the civil society in the country to reassess and respond to CPM barbarity in a more befitting manner...For the past few months a section of the elite media and anglicised intellectuals in the country were deceived to believe that Buddhadeb was a reformer, may be revisionist crusader in the Marxist ranks.” But now, “his spirited defence of the hooligan card-holding cadre has helped Buddhadeb shed his mask of urbane sophistry,” it concludes.

... contd.