Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)
Udupi, Mar 30: "A few self-styled progressive thinkers and rationalists indulge in moral turpitude. There is a need for them to self-impose Code of Conduct," opined journalist, columnist Ravi Krishna Reddy. He was delivering a special lecture at a programme of interaction on the current political scenario, held here on Sunday March 29 by Janapara Vedike Udupi district unit and Vichara Mantapa.net.
We have to shun Muslim communalism the same way we treat Hindu communalism. It is being seen of late that the self-proclaimed progressive people and rationalists are working to support Muslim communalism, while deriding Hindu communalism. They should do away with this perverted approach and oppose the entire gamut of communalism in Toto, he argued.
"The progressive thinkers are limiting themselves to being casteists. Making statements against the people belonging to higher castes can not in any way, be termed as progressive thinking. We are indulging in casteism without understanding the human theory of evolution," he rued.
Holding himself strongly in favour of activities which try to bring together people belonging to all the religions, he criticized the Hitlerism being followed by a few that aims at dividing people. He also called upon the people of the coast to consider this as a grave challenge.
Reddy said there are some good points both in rightist way of thinking and the leftist ones. Only when the thinkers analyze everything honestly, will they be able to oppose the bad ones. Their inability to own a balanced view of everything has become their undoing, he added.
The next speaker D S Nagabhushan, cultural analyst, stressed that secularism is not confined to any particular religion but it is a cultural legacy. The intelligentsia seeks to create a separate class for themselves and feel that they are the only intelligent people, by not even developing a courtesy of mingling freely with common people. Their view that those who oppose them do not possess any intelligence, is not at all right, he argued. He also said, there is a need to widely debate on the need to own a uniform civil code of conduct. It would be futile to speak about secularism without sorting out this issue. Because of social discontentment, communalism is getting a boost, he felt.
Journalist Samvartha inaugurated Vichara mangapa.net web site on this occasion. Veteran rationalist Pattabhirama Somayaji said that communalism has become blatantly one-sided in the coastal region and hence, the rationalists are faced with the dire need to support the minorities. The Sangh Parivar's attitude that the minorities are second grade citizens is getting universal nod in the region and the atrocities being committed on the minorities do not get spontaneous and universal response, he complained.
Rationalist C N Shetty presided. Freelancer Sharada Bhat, Dalit leader Jayan Malpe etc., too spoke on the occasion. Janapara Vedike general secretary Sriram Diwan was present.