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Sunday, February 1, 2015

Re: [mukto-mona] Saraswati Puja at Bangladesh Parliament



I do not want to sound patronising, but I have to say that my fond memory of Saraswati Puja still lingers on. I studied in a school called Siddheswari High School, which had a big Mandir at the edge of the school. The Mandir was a place of tranquility. Before the start of school, some of us used to go there, sit on the benches surrounded by banyon trees and a small pond was in front of us. At the end of the year, after the final exam, we used to enjoy the Saraswati Puja. Actually not the Puja itself, but the 'mela' associated with the Puja. All of our friends used to go there, have fun during the day and the evening. A friend of mine found a beautiful Hindu girl as his friend and we all blamed ourselves that why we couldn't find her before. However, after leaving school I knew nothing about that Puja any more. Now I hear that the Mandir had been demolished and multi storied building had come up. A history is lost.

- AR 

From: "Jiten Roy jnrsr53@yahoo.com [mukto-mona]" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, 1 February 2015, 18:24
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Saraswati Puja at Bangladesh Parliament

 
Mr. Mushrafi,

You are too quick to find communality in the response you have quoted - "Where are the Muslims.....? They are not ready for democracy." 

I think you do not understand the meaning of democracy - which, you think, is majority rule, without proper representation of minority.

So, your democracy is - if majority people do not want Saraswati Puja, it's OK to ignore the minority interest. That's not it. That's where the quote: "Where are the Muslims.....? They are not ready for democracy" comes into play.

Democratic minded Muslims should have come forward to support the minority demand, because democracy demand them to safeguard the interests of the minority. Democracy demands equal rights for the minority as those of the majority.

I am happy to inform you that host of Muslims did come forward to support Saraswati Puja in the Officers' Club. I believe, this was the first such occasion there, there were more Muslims than Hindus in that celebration.

Mr. Mushrafi, that's how you safeguard the interests of the minority in a real democracy. 

Jiten Roy

  
From: "Mohammad Mushrafi mushrafi@hotmail.com [mukto-mona]" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2015 9:15 PM
Subject: RE: [mukto-mona] Saraswati Puja at Bangladesh Parliament

 
"Where are the Muslims.....? They are not ready for democracy"
Its not a communal comment? We should forgive the commentator for the sake of democracy, though who is longing for democracy without respecting others particularly the majorities in the country.
 
For some people understanding the grass root democracy is far fetched when he/she reduced him/herself to communal smallness.  


From: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 03:34:34 +0000
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Saraswati Puja at Bangladesh Parliament

 
"Majority must be granted" is a bad motto when the majority does not understand/recognize the human/citizenship rights of individual citizens. For example, each citizen has a right to see that the parliament premise respects him as much as it respects any other citizen of the country. In other words, if one's religion is to be celebrated there, then each individual's religion has a right to be celebrated there.
 
To talk a bit harshly, where the Muslims are in the majority in the world, they are not ready for democracy; because they have not learned how to respect the non-Muslims.
 
SuBain
 
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On Thursday, January 29, 2015 6:23 PM, "Mohammad Mushrafi mushrafi@hotmail.com [mukto-mona]" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com> wrote:


 
With due respect to all religions,  the parliament is the temple of democracy.  The majority must be granted.  If have any doubt, then put to the litmus test of current or any issue.  do a survey, online, on TV or any kind. The democratic decision will come out.
 
The secularism, the spirituality, the religiosity , the mysticism the liberalism all are high sounding catch words indeed and all those exist in human society for long time.. But real life comes first, the day to day life practices comes first, the norms of lives in any society comes first. The ever evolving social changes comes on its own pace. A political decision in the parliament, a constitutional amendment does not change those norms over night.  
 
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
From: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 03:23:10 +0000
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Saraswati Puja at Bangladesh Parliament

 
Secularism means equal treatment for all religions, which can be achieved - 1) by showing indifference to all religions, or 2) giving equal treatment to all religions. Bangladesh won't be able to meet condition 1 ever; so, the best we can expect is equal treatment of all religions.
Jiten Roy

From: "Sukhamaya Bain subain1@yahoo.com [mukto-mona]" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2015 8:08 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Saraswati Puja at Bangladesh Parliament

 
True, secularism is to discourage all religions; and I never suggested that by allowing Saraswati Puja at the parliament premises Bangladesh was promoting secularism. What I suggested was that by allowing that event there, Bangladesh would be showing respect for the Hindu citizens of that country, much like what it has been doing to an extent for the Christians and overwhelmingly for the Muslims. Of course, one can paraphrase Shah Deelder's words like "why do the Hindus need respect?"
 
In any case, Bangladesh is not secular. The way madrassas and mosques have been growing there, the country is going in the backward direction from secularism. One way to make some improvements wound be to encourage the Muslims to think that the non-Muslims are also part of Bangladesh.
 
Sukhamaya Bain
 
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On Wednesday, January 28, 2015 2:56 AM, "Kamal Das kamalctgu@gmail.com [mukto-mona]" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com> wrote:


 
Secularism is not to encourage all religions. It is to discourage them all.

Sent from my iPad

On Jan 28, 2015, at 8:08 AM, "Shah Deeldar shahdeeldar@yahoo.com [mukto-mona]" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 
This was an odd idea to begin with and as expected it failed to materialize for very obvious reasons. Look, anything that promotes Hindu,Budhist or Christian traditions would be unpalatable for many Bangladeshis.This is not new. I am not sure why Hindu members even bother to propose such event at the parliament? How that makes Bangladesh more secular and tolerant? Do these people live in the bubble?
-SD


On Tuesday, January 27, 2015 8:04 PM, "Sukhamaya Bain subain1@yahoo.com [mukto-mona]" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com> wrote:


 
 

{Postscript from the Author (January 27, 2015): It is a great disappointment that in spite of the initial consent by the Prime Minister and approval by the Speaker, there was actually no Saraswati Puja at the Bangladesh Parliament. I am not sure why the big leaders' approvals were not implemented. But there is no doubt that this reneging pleases and supports the Islamic/Muslim hate-mongers of Bangladesh.}

















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Posted by: ANISUR RAHMAN <anisur.rahman1@btinternet.com>


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