Protest to Gomantak Times defamation of HJS FACT Exhibition

Updates:

By Staff Reporter

• Protest to Gomantak Times defamation of HJS FACT Exhibition
• 'Goan English Daily' Defames HJS  FACT Exhibitions (8 Oct 07)
• FACT photo-exhibition inaugurated at Panaji (5 Oct 07)

Subject: Defamatory article against FACT exhibitions

To: editor@gomantaktimes.com

Sir/Madam:
 
This is regarding a defamatory article published in your newspaper against the FACT exhibitions being held all over Goa.
 
Let me come to the facts straight away. I think the writer is least educated in matters of terrorism and his thoughts are purely fuelled by a hatred of Hindus and Organizations with the word "Hindu" in their names. What did he go to the exhibition for? Did he read the entire matter carefully? I am afraid the author focussed entirely on different matters instead of the real issue.  
 
Firstly, I would like to tell you about an organization called FACT. The organization was established by Francois Gautier, a French national who is engaged in the task of bringing forth to the world the truth about Hindu genocide in Kashmir, Bangladesh, and other parts of India. Please visit the following link for more information
http://www.factusa.org/
 
The facts that have been suppressed by the Indian government and the media in a very systematic manner is out now because of FACT. For your information, the magnitude of Hindu killing that has happened in India, the homeland of Hindus, goes into crores because of relentless jihad by the Islamic forces since medieval times. I would also ask you to go back to the true history of Goa, your homeland, which has witnessed the worst ever bloodbaths ever in the name of inquisition. Doesn't the Hindu have the right to even know his true history?
 
If even a single minority is harmed in any way, all the minority organizations, the human rights people, and the likes of them charge the Hindu oragnizations of communalism, etc and what not. In the case of Kashmir, quoting Francois Gautier,
 
"Over 400,000 Kashmiri Pandits have been forced to flee their homeland. Many Pandit men, women and children have been brutally murdered. About 70,000 still languish in makeshift refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi. Scores of temples in Kashmir have been desecrated, destroyed, looted, more than 900 educational institutions have been attacked by terrorists. Properties of Pandits have been vandalised, businesses destroyed or taken over, even hospitals have not been spared." Refer:
 
http://in.rediff.com/news/2003/oct/21franc.htm
 
Has any organization taken up the task of bringing their plight into the open? The media made a big coverage of the 9/11 event where around 7000 people died. Not even a single newspaper here has reported the plight of Kashmiri Pundits, whose death toll is around 35,000. Why don't they report such things? Why this discrimination against Hindus in their own homeland? This is part of a systematic elimination of Hindus in free India. The christian missionaries are also playing their part very well. First, the British made India poor by looting it of all its riches, and then come the missionaries to convert Hindus in name of saving them from poverty. These are all frauds against the Hindu society. We, as the citizens of this country, have the right to protest against such things. And the article published in your newspaper amounts to denying Hindus their fundamental rights.    
 
Would also like to explain why it not just an issue of Kashmiri Pundits but of the entire Hindu community of this country. First of all, such things more or less are happening throughout India against Hindus. These things are usually played down by the media and the politicians in the name of secularism. Of what use is such a secularism if it means persecution of the majority community and protecting the minorities no matter how they behave towards the majority? Hindus are being cheated in the name of secularism and more and more Hindus are realizing this fraud against them.
 
To add to this, there is ample proof for all the allegations made against the islamic fundamentalists as well as the christian missionaries in this letter. All this is coming to the open because of the internet. The media and the politicians cannot suppress these facts no matter how hard they try to with their tactics. The truth is all out for everyone to see. It is only the likes of you who cannot accept it.
 
I would also urge you to visit the following websites:
 
http://www.panunkashmir.org/facts.html
 
http://www.kashmiri-pandit.org/elibrary/articles/plightofhindusinpakistan.html
 
http://www.islam-watch.org/MarianaBaabar/HindusInPakistan.htm
 
http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/6704
 
There are hundreds of such websites speaking the truth. How many will you suppress?
 
I would appreciate if you could highlight the atrocities committed against Hindus instead of defaming others who have taken up the task to bring such things into fore.    
 
Sincerely,
 
Rajani

2.

Dear Editor,

I was shocked to read the article 'Invitation to hate" by Jason Keith Fernandes. So it has come to such a stage that even displaying a saffron flag has become a reason for "fearing" Hindus and the slowly rising consciousness of the Hindus as a religious community.

Firstly, let me assure Jason about one important fact - there is nothing called a "Hindu". The very Constitution of India describes Hindus as those who are not Muslim, Christian or Jews. All those who subcribe to a huge basket of belief-systems which developed and evolved in india are labelled as Hindus. The very labelling was done by outsiders just as the word "caste" itself is a Portugese invention.

People like Jason are afraid that their past sins might be revisited upob them. Let me assure you that most people who call thesmelves Hindus are not really bothered about him or his Semitic kind whose very belief systems are worshiping corpses on crosses or only Gods and their only Prophets. The Hindus presently, like the Jews aftef their Babylonian exile in around 240 BCE (Before Common Era), are more interested in sorting out their divisions under the Jati system, ensuring affirmative action for their more depressed classes and in the emanicipation of  their women.

Neither Christian nor Islamic oppression can now stop this process though let me assure you that we will also not let that be repeated again.

People like Jason should know that in Goa alone aover 3,000 temples were demolished by brutish brigands like Francis Xavier and the monks of the Mahraja Monk who reigns in the Vatican. No Goan Hindu (and I would like to rfemind him that my fore fathers were Goan Hindus who had to flee because of Christian persecution during the Inquisition) has ever asked for even one of these temples to be restored or any Church constructed on their siotes to be returned for demolished. Nor will such a demand ever be made for by your own Karma will you fall.

However, let the persecution of Hindus by the Christians and Muslims be a constant reminder that not only must it never occur again but that it must not be visited upon any people and that includes people like Jason and his kind.

Jason would like us to have a convenient amnesia so that he and his kind can be free to abuse us and our heritage incessently. That is not to be and will never again be allowed.

As for the hate speech and self-righteousness that drips in deathly passion in his article, let us treat it with the contempt it deserves. The Jasons of this world still stand outside many of the Temples in india and abuse our gods and their devotees. But in the words of that modern saint Ramakrishna of Dakshineswar:"What can you expect from a snake but poison. That is the most precious product of his body".

Jason's poison is in many ways a worship of the work of people like Francois Gautiter.

Sincerely yours
Ashok Row Kavi
Mumbai Metro

A former worker of Goan Times

'Goan English Daily' Defames HJS  FACT Exhibitions

October 8, 2007

Panaji (Goa): In the Goan English daily, the Gomantak Times dated 2nd October 2007, in an article by Jason Keith Fernandes 'An Invitation to Hate' there is false and defamatory allegations made against the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. We reproduce the article with the editorial comments in the blue colour.  

An Invitation to Hate

By Jason Keith Fernandes

This weekend I had the misfortune of visiting the most obnoxious exhibition. Set up by the Hindu Janajagruthi Samiti, the object of the exhibition was to ? educate? the average Hindu about the violence by Muslims on the Hindus of Kashmir and Bangladesh. I say ?educate? the Hindu, since every display of violence was followed by a caption addressed to the viewer indicating that if they were Hindu, then these visuals should make their blood boil, and tomorrow this violence could possibly be visited on them. If they were not moved, they were not fit to be - and hence not - Hindu. The theme of the exhibition purported to be the violence occurring in Kashmir, and yet, addressing the plight of the Kashmiri whether Hindu orJihadiwas not its concern. On the contrary, the attempt through the exhibition was to ensure that local Hindus see the localJihadias the natural and necessary enemy. What this exhibition is, therefore, is a very clear and deliberate attempt to create communal divisions in Goa. (A French Journalist Francis Gautier felt the need for creating this exhibition as the real truth about the atrocities has been not brought to light by the media and the politicians.The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti is only displaying it.How can this be called communal?Is presenting the truth creating communal divisions?Is awakening of Hindus against the on coming danger of terrorism communal? Mr Jason Fernandes should visit mosques and madarasas and  see what is being preached and then he would realise what is creating communal divisions .Would he also dare to write about the Muslims? - Editor).

Now I am not surprised by this display of anti-Muslim hatred, since one has gotten used to seeing this daily violence perpetuated for not being a certain kind of Hindu. For the Hindu right wing, it is not enough to hate only the minorities. Not being brahmanised upper-caste and minority hating is just as bad in their book. What is surprising is that this very blatant organizing of Hindus against Muslims (and by logical conclusion against the Catholics in Goa) is that it is taking place in the premises of the Kala Academy. Why the premier cultural institution of a secular state is allowing violent activities on its premises is a question that the authorities of the Kala Academy must immediately answer. The authorities can reprieve themselves of this abuse of authority only by withdrawing permission for this exhibition immediately. Worse, this is not just an exhibition; there was also a screening of inflammatory documentaries, followed by similar discussion sessions which were nothing short of unnerving. ('And the World Remained Silent' a documentary' by Ashok Pandit of Panun Kashmir depicting atrocities on Kashmiri Pandits was also screened in the International Film Festival 2007 in Goa.This has got the certificate of the India Censor Board.How can display of this this be called inflammatory ? - Editor)

Walking through the exhibition, the organizing women clamoring quite literally for the blood of local Muslims, was extremely unnerving. I fancy myself as a reasonably rational individual not given to acts of passion. And yet in this environment, I was strangely drawn toward pulling down the posters, destroying the projector and disrupting the meeting that was being conducted, knocking a few heads while I was at it. (These emotions of the writer suggest destructive mentality.How can one expect his writings to be creative? - Editor) 

It was when placed in this environment that I finally realized what it must be like to be a persecuted minority, and specially aJihadiin this country. Every apparently innocuous saffron flag is in fact a threat, telling you that your time is coming and you had better be careful.  If then I, as an individual who is not being directly threatened here, who has an escape route out of the country in terms of livelihood options, should respond irrationally and violently to such stimuli, how would a Muslim, already on the economic fringes of society,and subject to no less that 60 years of harassment respond to this threat? (The reason for the Muslims to be in the economic fringes of the society are their big family size,lack of education and not to accept laws other then their own religious ones. - Editor) Muslim The object of the exhibition then, is twofold. It is first to tell the individual that you are Hindu (or not Hindu) first, and that everyJihadiis your presumed enemy and you should ?get? them before they get you. The objective: The creation of a communal divide, and an invitation to violence. It exceeds this-one sided mobilization however,and also operates as a provocation to localJihadigroups. Of course, once the Muslims have been hounded enough to retaliate, all of society will turn around, refuse to see the provocation and shrug, saying ? (The provocation is there in their religious texts of Islam which says convert 'Darul Harab' to Darul Islam' - Editor )

It is true, these Muslims are violent by nature.? A minimum of 60 years of such violence has produced nervous and insecureJihadigroups in India. 60 and more years of Hindutva aggression has created the communal bloodbaths of this country, and the current exhibition is a fantastic example of who and what is responsible for it. (Mr Fernandes seems to be living in a different world.Today when the whole of the world has been terrorized by the Jihadis and it is the Muslims who are killing and harassing the Hindus and if anybody tries to awaken Hindus  he is called communal.Does Mr Fernandes suggest that the Hindus silently suffer? - Editor)

This particular exhibition has been touring Goa for some months now and it is a sign of the power and arrogance of these groups that they dare to take over the Kala Academy, the space of the secular and sophisticated in our capital. This is nothing less than a final flexing of muscle before they act out their fiendish agenda. While we must guard ourselves from this venom, they must first be cast out from the Kala Academy and the Academy asked to explain how they got there in the first place. (If Mr Fernandes does not realise the danger of terrorism then God forbid he may be cast out of this world by the terrorists? - Editor)

Express your opinion to

Gomantak Times

Gomantak Bhavan ,St Inez, Panjim Goa 403001

Editorial tel : (0832)-2422701-2422704. Fax-2422700, 2421163

E mail:   editor@gomantaktimes.com

Wake up and beware before Kashmir-like situation crops up here! – H.H. Bramheshanand Swami

October 5, 2007

Panaji (Goa): The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) has undertaken this noble task in order that we Hindus not be subject to the horrible atrocities that our Kashmiri brethren underwent. Every Hindu should become alert in time and participate in the HJS’ activities, appealed H.H. Bramheshanand Swami Maharaj of Tapobhoomi, Kundaim. The FACT-produced ‘The Bitter Truth of Terrorism’ photo-exhibition organised by the HJS was inaugurated at Panaji at the hands of H.H. Bramheshanand Swami Maharaj, who addressed the audience as the Chief Guest of the function. This three-day exhibition which has been organised at the Art Gallery of Kala Academy shall be open to all from 10 am to 8 pm. This exhibition provides detailed information on the atrocities inflicted on the Hindus of Kashmir and Bangladesh and has been created by the Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism (FACT), an institution founded by noted French journalist, Mr. Francisco Gautier. The HJS has been organising this exhibition at different places in order to acquaint and alert the society regarding this issue. Till date, over 1 lakh curious citizens have visited this exhibition.

In His address, H.H. Bramheshanand Swami further said, “Today one may not realise the importance of this mission, but as time passes the importance of this mission will be revealed to all. It is said that when one person stumbles, the other one following him should become alert and act wisely. Likewise, it is necessary that we learn from the Kashmir problem and act wisely. Hindutva should be ingrained into our brains. Spirituality as advocated by Hinduism is not individual-centric but principle-centric. The present generation which is blindly following the West should be made to practice Hinduism in letter and spirit. Else, a generation devoid of direction and pride will get created. Our sages referred to Kashmir as the crown of India. If the crown ceases to exist, then we too shall cease to exist. When the land of Kashmir blossoms, the entire nation shall be restored to its past glory and get rejuvenated with divine consciousness. Hindus should unite to protect their interests and raise the saffron banner in Kashmir to ingrain Hindutva into the crown of the nation. This will result in the rising of the radiance of Hinduism and Sanatan Hindu Dharma, which will provide direction to the entire world.”

At this time, Dr. Solanki, Goa State spokesperson of the HJS said, “The genocide in Kashmir is not human genocide but a plot of selective killings of Hindus. Hindus existing in other parts of the country are unaware about this. When Islam is attacked anywhere in the world, Muslims in India stage violent agitations here; on the contrary not even a single Hindu has protested against the atrocities being committed on Hindus for several years inspite of them existing in the same country! All the political parties and passive Hindus are responsible for the present state of Kashmiri Hindus. Political parties concealed facts about the plight of Kashmiri Hindus from the society. Hindus too didn’t pay any heed to the fact as to why did their Kashmiri Hindu brethren have to leave their homeland and get displaced. The primary reason for this state of Hindus is the lack of religious education. Due to lack of information about religion they have no respect for Hindu Dharma. We should be armed with religious education and become alert before Goa turns into Kashmir! The HJS is instrumental in spreading awareness and working out solutions with regard to the problems of Kashmiri Hindus.”

Prof. Dilip Betkikar acquainted the audience about the plight of Hindus in Kashmir and other parts of the country. He expressed that Swatantryaveer Savarkar had put light on the passive ‘Why do I need to bother’ attitude of Hindus. He said, “In Hindustan, Hindus feel ashamed to call themselves ‘Hindu’ but proudly proclaim to be ‘secularists’.”

At this time, Shri. R.K. Raina, a displaced Kashmiri and a member of the ‘Panun Kashmir’ association, narrated his experience and appealed to all Hindu associations and organisations to spread awareness about Kashmiri Hindus. Dr. Pandurang Marathe, a Prasarsevak of Sanatan Sanstha, expressed his views at this time. The inauguration function was hosted by Mrs. Shubha Sawant, Sanatan Sanstha’s North Goa Prasarsevika. This program was attended by 125 persons.

Highlights

• The press gave wide coverage to the inaugural ceremony of the exhibition. (Congratulations to the press reporters of Goa for giving wide coverage to events related to the Nation and Religion! - Editor)
• The ex-Mayor of the CCP, Shri. Ashok Naik, was felicitated for his support to the cause. At that time, he said, “This felicitation was not required as this mission is mine.” – (Such devout Hindus should exist everywhere! - Editor)
• Shri. Gurudas Shirodkar, Chairman of the Padmanabh Sect, invited the HJS to conduct this exhibition at Tapobhoomi, Kundaim on a Thursday.

Read Further

Terrorism Exposed Through FACT exhibitions

See more photos

Fact Photo-exhibition Gallery