Lajja!
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On last Friday I reluctantly picked up Taslima Nasreens' "Lajja-The Shame". It was lying at my place for quite someime but I could not muster enough enthusiasm to read it. This book which took just 7 days for Taslima to write and 48 hours for me to read is....not so great. Yes, its umm boring at times...though the narrative is flowing and the English is quite sub-continental. One strinking thing was that I was expecting some religion bashing in it, considering that it was banned and earned a Fatwa...but surprisingly it has nothing objectionable as per my judgement...it just preaches secularism under the guise of a ficticious story based on the post Babri riots in Bangladesh...and that I think, is no crime..anyway, I dont feel like elaborating more....the striking message from her is that "secularism does not mean treating all religions at par, but it means rooting out religion from politics all together!!" I was of the first opinion earlier but now after a second thought I think what she says makes more sense. The ambiguous word Secular is now much more clear and meaningful!...Its high time someone wrote a similar book on Hindu fundamentalism preached by the likes of Modis/Togadias. Secularism is the basic fabric of any democracy..it should not be tampered with...being religious is OK, but making it a premise for political gains is not acceptable....IIMs are suffering due to same reason....My food for thought.....
~A Hindu