A man arrives at the World Trade Center complex on the morning of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in Manhattan, New York, US, September 11, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
The cover story in Organiser compares two “9/11s”, which occurred over the span of a century. The article says that while the first 9/11 made an appeal for uniting humanity into a single brotherhood, the act on that date in 2001 propagated the message of violence, bloodshed and division. “Which 9/11 must be imbibed and embraced by the humanity,” asks the article.
The 9/11 in 1893 was represented by Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu and Bharatiya, at Chicago in the Parliament of Religions where the message of love triumphs hate. On the other hand, the 9/11 of 2001 was represented by Islamists who disseminated the message of violence and division. “How do we mark the significance of one day over the other? Of course, it is done by the collective experience of the same. One date — 9/11 has been also marked in the same way, but more for the horrors, violence, and bloodshed it brought. The four different attacks on this day in the US, most horrifyingly captured in our imagination by the sight of an airplane collapsing into the World Trade Centre in Manhattan, New York is still fresh in our memories,” the article says. Its adds: We tend to forget that some 108 years before the September 11, 2001 attacks, one monk from the heartland of Bharat had reached America as well. He won over the Americans with the message of love, and not hatred.” The article asks rhetorically, why must we associate the date with “jihadist” Osama Bin Laden rather than Vivekanada?
No Hinglish
Ahead of Hindi Diwas on September 14, Panchjanya has carried an article which quotes a renowned critic who had said that speaking “Hinglish” — Hindi and English — was insult to both the languages. The habit of speaking Hinglish is seen in those people only who properly know neither Hindi nor English, the article says. “The same is is true of the mixing of Arbi (Arabic), Farsi (Persian) and Turki (Turkish) with Hindi in the name of Urdu,” argues the article. It claims that just English could not become the mother tongue in any part of India despite 150 years of British rule. Likewise, despite the fact that empires led by Arabs, Turks and Mughals ruled much of India for about six centuries, Urdu could not become the mother-tongue in any part of the country. The article says that while “crores of Indians were forced to become Muslims, their mother-tongue did not change”. “Even today,” it claims, “not only in India but also in Pakistan, the mother tongues of Muslims are the local languages of their respective areas”.
Catch Urban Naxals
An article in Organiser says that there is a thin line between the orchestration of dissent and the veiled motive of carrying out violence. Therefore, the state must not allow Urban Naxals to go “scot-free under the undue pressure of speech and expression”. The article claims that there have been noises about democracy being in danger and “Emergency has come now”. “But we still see hundreds of opinion pieces, rallies and demonstrations against the current Union government. It shows that the basic foundation of democracy is so strong in our country and you can not affect it by merely calling it fascist,” argues the article, which adds that the criticism began with the arrest of some people who have been allegedly involved in Naxal/Maoist activity. It then asserts: “We need not to tell you what Maoism is and how it severely affects our country… a simple google search will show you how dangerous this philosophy is and how many lives it has taken since its formation.”
Recalling the recent detentions by Pune police of four alleged Maoist sympathisers — Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Arun Ferreira — and the house arrest of Gautam Navlakha after Delhi High Court stayed his detention, the article says: “We have heard for ages that prevention is better than cure although, in health issues, yet its application is equally desirable and necessary in political affairs. These people were arrested under several provisions of UAPA, 1967 and [the] sedition provisions of [the] IPC like section 153A, 117 etc. To jump to conclusions that the state is against the dissent and therefore these people have been arrested doesn’t hold ground. Let’s probe deeper and find how the Naxalite set up works.”