Andhra Pradesh Congress chief minister Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy has announced a subsidy for Christian pilgrimage to Palestine. The Organiser editorial deals with this move. The magazine describes Reddy as the “man who kick-started the UPA Muslim quota business in his state as the first act of his government in May 2004”. It further says, “The move is totally unconstitutional and the inspiration is blatantly communal with a political agenda. Reddy is a Christian, like his party chief, though the community is not very numerous in the state. In states where the Christians are in substantial number they enjoy many privileges, which are denied to the Hindus. Like the reservation in jobs and education in Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the pronou-ncedly Christian character of some of the North East states where the state assembly sessions begin with Bible prayers. Nobody has objected to them, but the Christian community is not known to go on pilgrimages to foreign lands the way Muslims do. There has been no demand of this sort from any quarter in the community. As such the Christians are educationally and economically well off... it’s high time that the UPA put an end to such cynical acts of perdition for temporary political mileage.”

In defence of Big B

Columnist M.V. Kamath writes on the campaign in Maharashtra against north Indians calling it “disruptive.” He goes on to say, “Then (during the original avatar of Shiv Sena) the target were the madrassis. Now the hatred is against the poor and the needy from Bihar and UP. What has Amitabh Bachchan done to Maharashtra? He has done more for not just Maharashtra but for the whole of India, more than all the Shiv Sena leaders and sainiks put together have done. Forgotten is the fact that Mumbai is not just the capital of Maharashtra but is the economic capital of all India and denying entry into Mumbai of people from the rest of India is destroying the very concept of One India, One People.”

... contd.