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Former editor of The Hindu believes Pakistan has a ‘Right to Retaliate’

OpIndia Staff
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Former editor of The Hindu believes Pakistan has a ‘Right to Retaliate’

Siddharth Varadarajan, the former editor of the left-leaning and family-owned newspaper The Hindu, seems to believe that Pakistan has a right to retaliate and take revenge, and it’s the Indians, who are guilty of provoking them into doing unruly things.

Mr Varadrajan, who was asked to leave The Hindu in October last year, betrayed this belief on Twitter when he replied to Shekhar Gupta, former editor of The Indian Express.

Middle finger by Pakistani hockey players after Champions Trophy victory over India
One of the obscene gestures by Pakistani hockey players before they become even more aggressive and obscene, removing clothes and swearing at the Indian spectators.

Shekhar Gupta had tweeted condemning Pakistani hockey players for their unruly and obscene behaviour on the field after winning the semi-final match against India during Champions Trophy.

It should be noted that everyone, including the Pakistani coach, had condemned the Pakistani players for their behaviour. It was deemed a serious breach of discipline and World Hockey suspended two players for the shameful act.

But Siddharth Varadarajan jumped to defend the Pakistani players by objecting to the tweet of Shekhar Gupta. He justified the shameful behaviour by claiming that Pakistani players were earlier “provoked” by the Indian unruly crowd.


Please note that this argument is almost similar to what rapists or bigots put forward – that they were “provoked” and thus committed the crime.

It is ironical that the same set of people like Varadarajan preach tolerance to everyone, but jump to defend Pakistanis and “fellow travellers” when they behave like intolerant bullies.

Earlier, Rajdeep Sardesai’s attack on an NRI was also justified by the same people on the ground that Rajdeep was “provoked” by the crowd before he abused and physically assaulted an NRI.

However, Mr Varadrajan seems to believe that Pakistan has some special privileges regarding this “right to retaliate”. And he has a history to it.

As editor of The Hindu, Mr Varadrajan had got the newspaper to publish a report that virtually justified beheadings of Indian soldiers by Pakistani Army.

The report, to which the Defense Ministry had then objected, had a similar tone to what got reflected in Varadarajan’s tweet. It gave examples of how the Indian army had “provoked” the Pakistani army before Pakistan decided to retaliate by beheading some Indian soldiers.

In wake of this, it is hardly surprising that Varadarajan decided to justify the act of Pakistani hockey players. After all, this is nothing compared to justifying the aggression by the Pakistani army.

While Mr Varadrajan has full rights to believe what he says and prefer Pakistan over India because he is not even an Indian citizen (he is a US citizen), OpIndia.com would expect a bit more objectivity and fairness from him in India-Pakistan matters.

AAP infiltrated by Khalistani separatists? Why is Arvind Kejriwal silent?

OpIndia Staff
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AAP infiltrated by Khalistani separatists? Why is Arvind Kejriwal silent?

When a senior leader of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Prashant Bhushan spoke in support of Kashmiri separatists, party supremo Kejriwal was quick to term it as Bhushan’s “personal views”, but he has maintained a strategic silence on the issue of party leaders supporting Khalistani separatists.

Khalistan movement refers to a hardline Sikh demand for a separate country for Sikhs. This demand has never found popular support among common Sikhs as they feel that their interests are well protected within India. However, this movement has always found support from Pakistan.

Khalistan movement was at peak during Indira Gandhi regime with likes of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale leading an armed struggle. But it slowly fizzled out thanks to nationalist Sikhs in Army and politics, who could save India from another partition.

But the movement still finds some support among some areas in Punjab. Earlier this year, pro-Khalistani outfits had declared support to AAP during the Lok Sabha elections.

And it worked. The only seats AAP could win anywhere in the country were in Punjab.

But questions should be asked if AAP is playing a dangerous game by going soft on Khalistani separatists for electoral gains?

Although AAP chief Kejriwal has never made a categorical statement about the relationship between pro-Khalistani outfits and AAP, he could argue that he can’t stop anyone from supporting him.

Just like Congress supported AAP during Delhi government formation in December 2013 without AAP asking for it openly, Kejriwal could claim that pro-Khalistani outfits supported AAP in a similar manner.

But now Arvind Kejriwal can’t afford to remain silent on this issue.


A photograph released by Tajinder Singh Bagga of Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena (see the tweet above) shows Jarnail Singh, an AAP leader who was a candidate from West Delhi in the 2014 general elections, addressing a rally of Khalistan supporters.

As one can clearly see, the rally has posters demanding a separate Sikh homeland of Khalistan, and thus it is asking for the division of India. An unconstitutional and dangerous demand.

The rally took place on 5 June 2011 in London, as confirmed by Bagga to OpIndia.com and it raises serious issues about the relationship between pro-Khalistan movement and AAP.

Will AAP remain silent for electoral gains even if it means that the unity and sovereignty of the country is weakened?

Khalistani movement has been supported by Pakistan, which also supports Kashmiri separatist movement. Isn’t AAP playing into the hands of Pakistan by going soft on such issues?

In fact, it raises serious questions if Pakistan could be funding some of these activities. One is forced to link it with the fact that AAP doesn’t show Pakistan as a country in its donations list.

Check out this official online form for donation to AAP. It shows all countries in the drop-down list except Pakistan. It doesn’t mean that people from Pakistan can’t donate to AAP (nowhere on the website it asks those living in Pakistan to stay away).

It means that people residing in Pakistan will have to choose some other country while making the donation, which means that the donations from Pakistan will be a non-transparent process. This comes from a party that asks for transparency in all walks of public life. Why is AAP afraid of disclosing donations received from Indians living in Pakistan?

AAP should come clean on these issues that hint at the party going soft on Pakistan backed groups such as Kashmiri separatists by Prashant Bhushan and Khalistani separatists by Jarnail Singh.

In fact, this is not only going soft on Khalistanis but now it’s about sharing the stage with Khalistanis after this exposé by Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena.

An AAP leader is seen making demands to break up the country, and the party chief Arvind Kejriwal must speak up now.

Is #ShamiWitness incident a deliberate attempt to put India on ISIS priority map?

Editorial Desk
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Is #ShamiWitness incident a deliberate attempt to put India on ISIS priority map?

While the liberal crowd in India is busy bailing out Mehdi Masroor Biswas, the Bangalore based youth who operated @ShamiWitness, one of the most influential Twitter account pushing ISIS propaganda, one needs to analyze if this incident could be part of a bigger conspiracy.

Let’s not forget that this has happened a few days after another Indian Muslim youth from Kalyan in Maharashtra, who joined ISIS to fight “infidel forces”, was brought back to India and arrested.

ISIS in Kashmir
ISIS supporters in Kashmir

In both cases, the disclosure by the youths that they were working for ISIS has been voluntary.

The Kalyan based youth returned of his own, apparently being unhappy at not being given chance to fight in the battlefield, and the Bangalore based youth admitted to running the Twitter account while talking to a British news channel.

Please note that Mehdi could have simply refused to talk to the British channel, and then taken further precautions to go fully anonymous. But he decided to disclose his virtual identity and activities, fully knowing that this will create a furore in India and could land him in serious trouble.

He also knew that the liberal crowd in India will bail him out, so there was hope that disclosure may not hurt him much, but how does it exactly benefit him?

After all, there is no fun being arrested and spending some weeks in jail, even if you are confident that a liberal India media and Human Rights activist will make sure you are not punished.

We believe that this could be a well thought of a plan to put India on the priority map of ISIS.

ISIS is growing in strength and there is a real possibility that they will be recognized as a legitimate government in areas they control. Just like the US has finally agreed to talk to Taliban in Afghanistan, US could soon offer this comprise formula to ISIS – you control the territory but don’t advance in more areas.

The areas controlled by ISIS are oil rich, and they could fund activities outside their areas once they settle into governance.

It’s obvious that ISIS would try to fund supportive movements in and around the Middle East. India is too far away from them.

However, Kashmiri separatists and Pakistani intelligence agencies have been trying to involve ISIS into Kashmir.

We have already seen some youths waving ISIS flags in Kashmir, but this has not been enough. ISIS doesn’t see India as a natural enemy yet. For them, Iran is a bigger and close-to-home enemy. Islamists in India and Pakistan want to change that.

With @ShamiWitness Twitter account, followed by many ISIS fighters and supporters, disclosed as being operated by an Indian Muslim, the ISIS support system is expected to take a closer look at India, and Kashmir could come on their priority map – a benefit Mehdi Masroor Biswas, or his bosses, could be looking at.

Al Qaida has already announced an Indian arm, and now with ISIS focusing on India, it could be music to Pakistani and Kashmiri separatist ears.

Is that the plan?

Shahi Imam publicly calls for Love Jihad, Indian media doesn’t report it

OpIndia Staff
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Shahi Imam publicly calls for Love Jihad, Indian media doesn’t report it

While condemning the recent religious conversion of Muslims in Agra by a Hindu group, Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid ended up admitting what has been being denied by the Muslim leaders and liberal commentators recently.

Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the Shahi Imam, called on Muslims to fight such religious conversions through “Love Jihad” i.e. marrying Hindu women and converting them to Islam.

Shahi Imam
Shahi Imam has accepted something with outspoken honesty, which others have been dishonestly denying.

His call for Love Jihad, with the objective to increase population and strength of Muslims in India, came during the Friday prayers earlier this week, as reported by the website New Age Islam.

There is no reason to doubt the veracity of the website as it is run by a Muslim who himself is committed to propagate Islam.

Shahi Imam’s call for Love Jihad was greeted by slogans of “Allahu Akbar” by thousands of Muslims inside the mosque and outside it, the website reports.

While Shahi Imam’s uttering is on expected lines given the kind of statements he has been issuing ever since BJP announced Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate, what is intriguing is the silence of the Indian media on this issue.

The India media, which doesn’t lose a minute in highlighting and amplifying any “controversial” statement by any random self-appointed Hindu leader with virtually no following, chose to ignore Shahi Imam’s speech delivered to a large crowd.

Is there a concerted attempt by the media to make sure that the unsuspecting public starts believing that fundamentalists Muslims don’t believe in “Love Jihad”, and that it is a myth propagated by likes of Yogi Adityanath?

One wishes that the Indian media was as honest and outspoken as Shahi Imam, who proved that the concept of Love Jihad was a reality and not any figment of imagination by some political groups looking for electoral benefits in Uttar Pradesh.

Pro-ISIS Indian Muslim starts getting support from the liberal crowd

OpIndia Staff
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Pro-ISIS Indian Muslim starts getting support from the liberal crowd

Indian liberals are almost as predictable as religious bigots. And thus the fears expressed by OpIndia.com has started coming true.

After keeping mum since the news of an Indian Muslim youth named Mehdi Masroor Biswas running one of the most influential pro-ISIS Twitter account was broken, the liberal crowd has now started speaking in favour of Biswas.

Following the standard operating procedure in such cases, they have first started by drawing unequal parallels, which would prove that Biswas is “just another Twitter user”.

One of the first ones to come out in support of Biswas as Business Standard journalist Mihir Sharma, known for his pro-Congress and anti-Hindu views. On Twitter, he drew parallels between a random Internet Hindu Twitter account and Mehdi Masroor Biswas.


Apart from drawing the false equivalence, the journalist also plugs in his view that arrest of Mehdi is unjustified.

Although one may argue that Mihir Sharma suffers from low intellect and thus cannot differentiate between randomly ranting online and actively encouraging a person to join a real terrorist organization, the truth is that Mihir has that basic intellect but it’s a deliberate obfuscation to save Mehdi.

It should be noted that Mehdi supported ISIS activities like the beheading of US journalists and killings of non-Muslims in conquered lands. This is not hate speech, but a direct call for violence – a difference even the US constitution, known for its free speech statutes, makes.

However, Indian liberals will not make this difference because their agenda is always to draw unequal parallels between Islamists and Hindutva supporters.

After this false equivalence is established, the next step will be to paint Mehdi as a “victim” of circumstances and an unfriendly state.

Many people have pointed out that even in this case, the modus operandi is going to be similar to the one adopted in Ishrat Jahan case, where a Lashkar affiliated terrorist was painted as innocent college going girl.


The liberal crowd is all set to welcome Mehdi, an innocent MNC going executive.

Dawood Ibrahim could have been killed, but his friends in Congress saved him?

OpIndia Staff
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Dawood Ibrahim could have been killed, but his friends in Congress saved him?

Gangster and terrorist Dawood Ibrahim is often reported to have close friends in Congress and NCP (Nationalist Congress Party), even though both the parties deny any such relationship.

Only last year, Deccan Chronicle reported that senior Congress leader Rajeev Shukla had met Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan in 2004 i.e. after the Mumbai serial blasts orchestrated by him.

Dawood Ibrahim
Who is helping him?

Earlier Sushil Kumar Shinde, another senior Congress leader and Home Minister in the Manmohan Singh government, was accused by former Home Secretary RP Singh of helping a businessman close to Dawood.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar too has been accused of having links with Dawood Ibrahim, which he denies.

But the latest revelations are most shocking.

News channel IBN7 claims that the Indian intelligence agency RAW (Research & Analysis Wing), in association with security agencies of Israel like Mossad, had finalized a plan to kill Dawood Ibrahim, but the plan was aborted.

As per IBN7, even the date to kill Dawood was finalized – September 13, 2013.

The operation was to take place in Karachi in Pakistan, where Dawood is reported to be staying. Dawood’s daily movements were noted and analyzed and the group, called “Super Boys”, had even finalized the spot where Dawood would be killed.

Apparently, at least nine commandos had taken positions and were ready to kill the Enemy no. 1 of India, but minutes before they were to strike, someone ordered them to abort the operation.

The IBN7 report doesn’t clarify who made this phone call, but it is clear that the phone call was either made or directed by someone having top-level contacts and authority in the government of that time.

And it was UPA government at that time. So was Dawood saved thanks to his old friendships? We hope not!

Indian Muslim operating pro-ISIS Twitter account all set to play victim card

OpIndia Staff
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Indian Muslim operating pro-ISIS Twitter account all set to play victim card

As expected, the Bangalore based Muslim executive, who was running a popular and influential ISIS-supporting Twitter account @ShamiWitness, has started the process of becoming a “victim” in the eyes of the unsuspecting public.

OpIndia.com had earlier predicted this possible course of action that could be taken by Mehdi Masroor Biswas, the Bangalore based executive who was outed a by British news channel.

Latest reports confirm that Mehdi is working on this plan, and this could have been suggested to him by his lawyers and “well-wishers”.

The Twitter Terrorist
The dual life of Mehdi – as an ISIS-supporting Islamist on Twitter (above) and as a common Indian man on Facebook (below).

Although he was arrested by Bangalore police earlier today, he used the time given to him in the last two days to talk to the Indian and international media to project his innocence – an increasingly reliable tool by Islamists in India.

As proof of his innocence, Mehdi has claimed that he didn’t operate the pro-ISIS Twitter account, even though he admitted doing that to the British news channel. He claims that he falsely told Channel 4, the British news channel that outed him, that he was the person who operated the @ShamiWitness Twitter account.

Mehdi claims that his email address was used to create the Twitter account and he was unaware of this.

First of all it is indeed strange that a person can use someone else’s email address to create a Twitter account and the other person is unaware. Twitter sends a mail to the email address before confirming the account.

However, assuming that even the email was hacked, there was no reason why he should accept being @ShamiWitness to Channel 4. He could have expressed shock and approached Bangalore Police’s Cyber Crime cell to lodge a complaint about his email account being hacked.

It is clear that Mehdi is trying to obfuscate facts so that he is given benefit of doubt by courts and activists. It is a standard operating procedure by Islamists where they use Media and Human Rights activists to obfuscate facts and conceal the truth.

It has also come to light that Mehdi originally belongs to West Bengal, where Islamists have increasingly become emboldened – first ignored by the Left Front government and now encouraged by the TMC government led by Mamata Banerjee.

Mehdi’s father has already set the ball rolling and is hoping that his son and his family are seen as victims.

“You know being Muslim, we are easily identified as terrorists,” Mehdi’s father told The Indian Express, adding “The days are so hard now. But I can tell you that my son is innocent and has done nothing wrong. If he has landed in trouble it is because some enemy is after him.”

OpIndia.com will not be surprised if Mamata Banerjee takes note of this statement and development and asks Kolkata police to safely bring Mehdi Masroor Biswas by taking over his custody from Bangalore police.

Times of India makes a Shia-Sunni riot appear like a Hindu-Muslim riot

OpIndia Staff
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Times of India makes a Shia-Sunni riot appear like a Hindu-Muslim riot

BHOPAL: India’s leading newspaper The Times of India, which is hardly known for promoting factual and objective journalism, sunk to a new low when it tried to project a Shia-Sunni riot in Madhya Pradesh as a Hindu-Muslim riot.

Indian media is known to spin reports of communal violence in a way that Hindus always appear aggressors and oppressors, but now they are aiming to reach new levels by making Hindus appear aggressors and oppressors even when they are not involved in the violence.

Shia Sunni violence
A woman injured in the Shia-Sunni clashes in Bhopal. (Photo source: HT)

The Shia-Sunni violence took place in Bhopal yesterday when Sunni residents attacked Shia residents, who had recently moved in the area after buying land.

This report published in the Hindustan Times makes it clear that the fighting groups belonged to two sects of the same community, although it still doesn’t clarify which sect and which community. But the names of the victims give it away.

Now, look at this report published in The Times of India. It says “Sectarian violence erupted in the city with over 60 houses of a minority community torched by a mob on Thursday.”

The report then quotes people whose houses were torched and they obviously have Muslim names. But nowhere else in the report, it is made clear that the mob that torched the houses belonged to the same community.

In absence of such a clarification, the reader is forced to conclude that Muslims were attacked by Hindus. Many Congress supporters on Twitter were quick to share the Times of India report because it happened in a BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh.

Little did they realize that the Hindustan Times report blames a Congress leader for this violence.

In fact, when Congress supporters on Twitter were pointed out by people living in Bhopal that this was not a Hindu-Muslim violence, they rejected those claims as “propaganda” choosing to believe what Times of India misleadingly conveyed.

It was only after people shared the Hindustan Times report that the Congress supporters decided to drop the issue.

This clearly proves how media can twist facts and present a picture that is nowhere near reality. If Hindustan Times had also decided to follow this “politically correct” way of reporting, Hindus would have again been painted as aggressors and oppressors in an incident where they had no role to play.

Indian Man named ‘Mehdi Masroor’ found operating popular Twitter account supporting ISIS

OpIndia Staff
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Indian Man named ‘Mehdi Masroor’ found operating popular Twitter account supporting ISIS

BANGALORE: While the country was yet to come to terms with the fact that some Muslim youth from Maharashtra had gone to Syria to fight for the Islamic terrorist group ISIS, the latest reports confirm that yet another Indian Muslim youth was giving online support to the terrorist group.

Channel 4, a British news channel has revealed that @ShamiWitness – one of the most popular and followed ISIS-supporting account – was being run by an Indian Muslim youth living in Bangalore.

The youth – apparently named Mehdi Masroor Biswas – works as an executive in some Indian conglomerate and had been living a dual life.

On Facebook, where he would post as Mehdi, his real name, he will post updates about city life and pizzas he ate and other such daily life events, while on Twitter he would transform into a bloodthirsty Jehadi who wants the entire world to be ruled by the Caliph Abu Bakr Baghdadi, the head of ISIS.

This incident confirms the concerns raised by the Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh earlier, where he had said that a part of young Indian Muslims were attracted towards extreme Jihadi ideologies.

While it’s not yet clear what the government of India will be doing to tackle the menace, many people fear that India is on its way to become another Britain, where extremist Islamic ideologies have found a home away from the Middle East and Pakistan.

This fear stems from the fact that left-liberal group in India remains sympathetic to the Islamists and are always looking to bail them out by blaming Hindu fundamentalist organizations.

OpIndia.com will not be surprised if Mehdi Masroor Biswas finds supporters among the left-liberal group in India if he claims that he was “pushed” towards ISIS because he was not happy with RSS and Narendra Modi. Maybe that’s what his lawyers are telling him to claim while Indian police looks out for him.

What kinds of people glorify someone like Nathuram Godse? Respected poets!

Editorial Desk
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What kinds of people glorify someone like Nathuram Godse? Respected poets!

BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj had to apologize for calling Nathuram Godse a “nationalist”. He was merely mentioning the other aspect of Godse’s personality, not his act of murder of Gandhiji, yet he was painted as a villain.

While mainstream politicians should indeed keep away from issuing statements that can send confusing and dangerous signals, we need an objective debate around Godse after this incident.

Let it be clear that under no circumstances one can justify the act of Godse, where he fired bullets at Mahatma Gandhi and killed him.

You just can NOT kill someone unarmed and non-combative for his beliefs.

Nathuram Godse did that, and this act can’t be glorified.

However, if someone glorifies this act, should we assume that the person glorifying such act is a religious bigot with a violent streak?

Should a person glorifying Nathuram Godse be deemed as anti-social and the society should look down upon him?

If any liberal person in India is asked this question with respect to Godse, the answer would invariably be “Yes”.

But do we, the Indian society, especially the liberal Indian society, really look down upon people who glorify murderers killing non-combative people for their beliefs?

The following tweet caught our attention:


For those who didn’t get it, the tweet refers to Dr. Allama Iqbal, the famous Urdu poet who wrote “saare jahaan se achchha”.

Iqbal is well respected and celebrated among Indian liberal and secular circles.

And Iqbal glorified Ilm-ud-din, a Muslim fanatic who murdered a person called Rajpal in 1929.

Rajpal was a publisher who had published a book titled “Rangeela Rasool” which was deemed blasphemous by Muslims. Please note that Rajpal was not the writer, but the publisher; yet he was killed because Ilm-ud-din didn’t agree with the beliefs contained in the book.

Rajpal was unarmed and in non-combative position, just like Mahatma Gandhi, when he was killed.

Ilm-ud-din was awarded capital punishment by the British rulers in those days, just like Nathuram Godse was awarded the same punishment in Independent India.

But Allama Iqbal, and some other Muslim intellectuals of those times opposed this punishment. They were not even asking for mercy, but they claimed that what Ilm-ud-din did, a cold-blooded murder, was not a crime at all!

In fact, Iqbal glorified this act of cold-blooded murder. He, along with many other Muslim leaders and intellectuals of those days, attended the funeral of Ilm-ud-din, declaring him a great warrior and a martyr.

Allama Iqbal
Yes, a person having a favourable view about Nathuram Godse is as good or bad as Allama Iqbal.

It is like someone calling Nathuram Godse a warrior and martyr. Shameful, isn’t it?

But how does the Indian history and Indian liberal society view Iqbal?

Do our history books paint Iqbal as a religious bigot?

Forget painting his entire personality as that of a religious bigot, which would be unfair, does our history condemn Iqbal for this particular act where he glorified murdering an unarmed non-combative person for his assumed beliefs?

Obviously not! Iqbal is a very tall figure and this act hardly tarnishes his image in the eyes of Indian liberals.

So if Iqbal can be forgiven and his entire personality is not tarnished by this act, why should shame be sent towards those who view Nathuram Godse favourably?

Please note that many of those, who ask for an objective debate on Godse, DO NOT justify him murdering Gandhiji, but only ask for an objective debate on issues he had raised in his speech given in the courtroom. In contrast, Iqbal justified and glorifies the murder.

And yet, for Indian liberal society, Iqbal can be given respect while those asking for an objective debate on Godse have to be painted as villains and bigots.

Perhaps these double standards are what define Indian liberals.

OpIndia.com believes that while Nathuram Godse’s act of murder can never be justified, there is no harm in discussing his beliefs, which is about ideal Hindu response to aggression by other faiths.

Just like the entire persona of Iqbal can’t be dishonoured for his views towards Ilm-ud-din, an entire persona of those asking for an objective debate on Godse can’t be sullied and shamed either.

A person can have controversial views on some aspects. You can’t dismiss his entire character based on that one. And the same rule applies to people holding controversial views about Nathuram Godse.

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