This is about Outlook’s long cover story about the kidnapping of Bodo and Santhal girls from Assam to Punjab and Gujarat (The Sangh’s Stolen Child Crusade, Aug 8). The way the story was packaged, it seemed well-researched, but I have my doubts. Might we have the whole investigation report please? Half-cooked truths can do irreparable damage, especially if they seek to nail one of India’s oldest social organisations, the RSS, which has a record of complete devotion to the nation.
Vishwas Narayan, On e-mail
The RSS is as lawless an organisation as the Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh and Pakistan. It will never reveal its true agenda. It wants us to be lulled to sleep while it brazenly carries out its criminal agenda towards an overt and covert ‘Hindufication’ of India. After reading this story, I feel the RSS are close cousins of the Boko Haram girl kidnappers of Nigeria.
Anwaar, Dallas
What’s reported in this article is only the tip of the iceberg of what the RSS and Hindutva fanatics are doing to young children. A few years ago, there was a case of young tribal children from the Northeast being brought to Udupi, a small Karnataka town, and ‘schooled’ there (essentially brainwashed in a place that would resemble a concentration camp). It was exposed by a local Kannada daily, but I’m not aware of any action being taken against the perpetrators, as the BJP ruled the state then. The name of the main RSS operator in the article was given as one Ratnakar Shetty, a local RSS goon. I was also struck by the picture of the ‘sewika’ Kanchai on page 40, as someone indoctrinated by Hindutva forces. For caste Hindus, people from the Northeast are beyond the pale of ‘civilised’ people—they are ‘Panchamas’, or sub-human people. For almost a few straight millennia, India’s marginalised and exploited people have been forced to eke out a living in forests and uninhabitable areas. These poor girls have been so brainwashed as to not realise the diabolical games these Hindutva fanatics have been playing with them. It’s a tragic situation.
T. Nayak, Washington
If forced conversions can be deemed to help a country, maybe the Sangh should try to convert anti-nationals into patriots. They'd be doing a service to the country.
Rajneesh Batra, Delhi
Well, so the RSS has converted 31 tribal children. Zakir Naik, the televangelist and internet demagogue, alone has converted thousands, using Saudi funds, to a hateful, murderous Islamic ideology.
Babloo Baba, Kashmir
When was imparting religious education in a residential school a crime in India? What about the thousands getting educated in madrassas? Or is it that it is considered to be a crime only if it’s done by a Hindu organisation?
FC, Hyderabad
This is a malicious article. Many such girls have returned to their families after the completion of their studies. It’s an ongoing project. If any parent has any complaint, he/she can surely lodge one with the government. The reporter’s vengeful tone didn’t go down well with this reader.
S. Vidhya, Chennai
Whenever any crime involving caste Hindus is pointed out, some people come out with a clichéd “why Hindu, why not Muslim” argument. For their information, Zakir Naik didn’t break any law; people were influenced by voluntarily listening to his speeches. Here, the RSS literally trafficked children, breaking every law there is to break concerning children.
Piyush, Delhi
Forget the “children from poor families are getting an education” line. They have been abducted, they are minors and it’s a criminal offence. Let us show mercy to these children, and spare a thought for their parents. The question is: should a child lead the life of an orphan just to satisfy the motives of a religious outfit?
Kailash, Chennai
The reporter is a fellow of One World South Asia, a recipient of donations from Ford Foundation, Oxfam etc. No wonder she is hyperventilating on the RSS providing education to tribal children.
Mohan, Adipur
Outlook has clearly decided to demonise the Sangh. Why don’t you also cover all the missionary activity of Christians, and write about all those women who have been pushed into nunneries against their will? Bypassing it in one line, and instead focusing on the counter-missionary work by the RSS is misleading. Why is it that mass Christianisation in the Northeast, which has been taking place for more than a century, does not get the attention of such reporters and publications?
Skanda Murugan, Coimbatore
I respect the reporter’s zeal. But one thing. In tea gardens and overwhelmingly tribal areas of the Northeast, Christian missionaries have been converting local people to Christianity for over a century. And that too with funds from the West. If she has the guts, the reporter should expose it and publish that too in Outlook. I guarantee she cannot. When Hindus are made victims of injustice by non-Hindus, no ‘secular’ Indian bats an eye!
Rupjyoti Sarma, Tezpur
All major faiths seem to be having a field day in ‘modern’ India. The Christians through their missionary activities; Muslims through their fire-spewing imams and seminaries, and now, not to be outdone, Hindus have joined the fray through covert acts like ‘Operation Baby-lift’. Zealots, with their pulling power, are always at the front of such activities. Religion stinks in India.
George Jacob, Kochi
As a reader of Outlook almost since its inception, I don’t suspect the veracity of the cover story. But the Northeast, including Assam, has around 20 per cent Christian population, mostly tribals. That they are converts is well known. Recently, Kerala has been subject to investigations by state and central agencies regarding allegations about children being brought illegally from the north and kept in Muslim orphanages for being ultimately converted to Islam. Where they are being sent after that is also being probed. Why is Outlook then zeroing in on the RSS only? To tell you the truth, I am fed up with Outlook’s anti-Sangh fixation.
Jawahar Sekhar, Kozhikode
Outlook has become a mouthpiece of jehad and various anti-India Islamic tanzeems.
Ghai, Mumbai
This is clearly another piece of hack work by Outlook. These journalists don’t even bother to look up the dictionary meaning of ‘trafficking’. The RSS should sue Outlook.
Novonil Guha, Delhi
Outlook’s RSS phobia and anti-Hindutva stance is obvious. Why not a story on the hundreds of mosques financed with Arab money and the horribly anti-Hindutva and anti-India propaganda carried out in such places? Why not a story on Zakir Naik and his statements that seek to belittle other religions? And what about the evangelist brainwashing all over the Northeast for over a century? Why keep quiet about that?
K.C. Padhy, On e-mail
The reporter has done extensive research, but through biased lenses. If the children were handed over by their parents, how does that amount to trafficking? The Northeast has been neglected for over 60 years; someone is actually trying to break through this darkness. Don’t try to blow it out of proportion! The politics of poverty has hurt Northeasteners enough already. And parents can’t meet their children because of financial reasons. If they know they’re being educated at some definite place, how does that amount to trafficking? And food habits and prayers recited in schools are always specific to the roots of the institution. I studied in a Christian school; my parents never complained about the prayers we had!
Sagar, Bangalore
This is with reference to your Leader comment (Silence is Not Golden, Aug 8). Neither ‘Moun’ Singh nor anyone before him has spoken as effectively as the present PM. If he were to speak on all the subjects mentioned by you, he should become a running commentator, as these kind of incidents happen after every half an hour in this country. Does our country need an efficient and visionary leader or a running commentator?
B.D. Trivedi, Ahmedabad
Christians under attack! People say, “Modi is silent.” The issue is perfectly timed before the Delhi elections. A Muslim killed in Dadri, Award Wapasi—again people say, “Modi not speaking.” The accusations against the PM are perfectly timed for the Bihar elections. Then comes the Rohith Vemula issue and the JNU row, aptly timed just before the elections in Assam. People accuse Modi once again of being mum. And now comes the gau rakshak issue, setting the stage for the UP elections. Actually, in 2014, the BJP got the highest percentage of Dalit votes. Hence, from now on, for every attack on Dalits, the BJP will be blamed.
Guha, On E-Mail
Modi is silent on the fate of Kashmiri Pandits, who have a fundamental right to live in the Valley. He exploited the Hindu votebank to the hilt before he came to power, citing that such issues would be resolved. The question is: what is he going to do to counter Islamic terror in Kashmir?
Pinaki S Ray, Adelaide
Apropos The Other Kashmir Family Album (Aug 8), if this is the ‘other’ side of the story, then what is the original story? Certainly, that story does not suit Outlook, Barkha Dutt, Rajeev Sardesai and the Congress. All are anti-Hindu and staunch Muslim supporters. They will never talk of the exodus of Pandits from Kashmir.
Vijay, New Delhi
This is with reference to your article Buying American Blades (Aug 8). If the HAL is awarded the contract, the Indian army will not see its helicopters for another twenty years. It is as simple as that. No points for guessing what will happen to the army’s requirements then. HAL’s resources are overstretched and its management in a shambles. It is known to be struggling to perform even its primary function, which is the upkeep of Indian air force aircrafts.
G. Natarajan, France
This is with regard to Noteworthily Spoken (Aug 1), the piece on currency notes. When this ancient land has given birth to so many greater personages, why should we be made to accept a mere politician, who was prone to mistakes, as the ‘father of the nation’? Just because he ‘chose’ the first prime minister of free India, one who became addicted to post and power and installed family rule, does not mean he should get embossed on every currency note. What we need on these notes is not any human face but peaceful and pleasing things like the Himalayas, rivers, caves and the sunrise as seen from Kanyakumari.
V.N. Ramaswamy, Hyderabad
This is with reference to the article by Shujaat Bukhari (Cracked Mirrors, Aug 1). Bukhari is incorrect in describing what is happening in Kashmir as an armed rebellion. He should read former Pakistani ambassador Husain Haqqani’s book Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military. After Pakistan’s break-up in 1971, first Bhutto and later Zia-ul-Haq planned an insurgency in Kashmir with the objective of ‘bleeding India by a thousand cuts’. A special branch was established by the ISI towards this end.
Rajiv Chopra, Jammu
Apropos The Cow Protector’s Justice (Aug 1), the outrageous ‘cow vigilantism’ in Una has to be analysed. Did it take all of 10 days for the home minister to tell us that the prime minister was unhappy and that action would be taken against the miscreants? No matter how vehemently the saffron brigade may deny it, since May 2014, some of the worst elements of our society have given violent expression to their narrow and regressive mindsets, with the government taking token action only when it becomes unavoidable. It would be difficult to name even a single saffron neta who has been made to pay for provocative statements that have fuelled divisive passions. There is something brazen in the manner in which the party spokespersons promote their agenda.
K.S. Jayatheertha, Bangalore
When we have an enviable Constitution and the provisions of the Indian Penal Code can take care of law and order of any kind, where is the need for self-styled vigilantes to enforce their diktats? If the government allows such outfits to flourish, we, I’m afraid, will go the Iranian and Bangladeshi way. Ban all vigilante groups. It’s deplorable that despite 70 years of independence, we could not bring Dalits and Adivasis to the mainstream.
K.P. Rajan, Mumbai
In the article Mundra: The Port of No Call (Aug 1), Adani Group founder and chairman Gautam Adani was mistakenly referred to as ‘Group Captain Gautam Adani’. We regret the error.
In the article Too Straight Too Fast (Aug 15), a quote by Jayant Misra, IRS association general secretary, was carried along with a wrong photograph—that of Jayant Misra, director-general, Revenue Intelligence. The error is regretted.
