Hello editor,

The following is your mission statement as per your webpage:

The San Diego Union-Tribune’s mission is to spread knowledge, build understanding and create opportunity in the communities we serve. We strive to elevate civic discourse through the journalistic pursuit of truth.We encourage our readers to engage with us. 

So, reading the above on your webpage, I was inspired to write to you what I found problematic in your publication.The article written by Sheikh Saaliq and published by The San Diego Union-Tribune on 21st March, 2024 reeks of arrogance and seems to be unabashedly advocating for entitlement for just one faith. He is absolutely fine, which is implicit in his argument, if Islamic nations and Christian nations exist and, by the way, between these two faiths, there may be around 100 such nations. 

But he has a problem if India wants to become a Hindu nation. He finds problems in India turning from the secular country into Hindu.

Problem with such entitled agenda-driven writers is that they do not consider it necessary to know history about the topic they cover, they do not even feel necessary to do any research about the topics they want to cover and they do not ever think that they need to write with caution what they write as it may bite them later on, because they are privileged to not getting any rebuttals due to the cancel-culture they thrive in.

He talks about India’s quest to become a Hindu nation from being a secular one.

He does not know that in 1947, India’s constitution did not declare India as secular, even though India’s ethos WAS secular only and only because India was 85-90% Hindus. Can he show me one Islamic nation which is secular? Then, why are we Hindus asked to become secular? On the one hand, Muslims of Pre-Independence India wanted to create a nation based on religion, and they did secure Pakistan as an Islamist country, but on the other hand, unfortunately, out of the large-heartedness of Hindus, India decided not to declare itself as a Hindu nation. So, he promotes that Muslims must eat the cake and have it too.

India was declared a ‘Secular republic’ stealthily by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1976 after declaring emergency in India and throwing almost all the opposition leaders into jail.

Having declared India secular and then also declaring Muslims as minority are completely oxymoronic concepts. In any case, the true minority of India are not Muslims, but are Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists, who never made any minority claims nor demanded any special privileges.

Saaliq has problems with many filmmakers making movies on bygone kings extolling their bravery, as well as films showing medieval Muslim rulers, leftists or opposition leaders as villains and he thinks that Political dramas and biopics that eulogize Hindu nationalists are the norm. He also finds problems with the biopic on Savarkar, who advocated for India’s future as a Hindu nation according to him.

He finds issues with all the movies that are being made now which show the true history of India, wherein all the producers have taken complete care to do deep research, showing only what is documented and what is in public domain. But he claims that some film reviewers called such movies factually incorrect and are thinly veiled propaganda films favoring the government.

Saaliq either has not studied the track-record of Bollywood industry or is simply taking advantage of the privileged cancel-culture ecosystem that protects him, the latter being more likely.

I do not even consider rebutting to him on these above charges because there are several hundred such  movies made by Bollywood in the last 50 years where a Hindu priest is shown as rapist/greedy/cheater/villain, where a Rajput/Thakur is shown as rapist, as an oppressor/exploiter, where Hindu Bhagwans (Gods) have been mocked at/insulted etc. While there is a big list of movies from Bollywood where Hindu Gods have been mocked, there is not one movie made in Bollywood where Muslim prophet or Allah have been mocked. In these movies, the Muslims have been shown as loving and caring individuals, who would go out of their ways to protect Hindus, which is fine. However, the Bollywood movies have stereotyped Hindus as villains and Muslims as heroes. If you search the movies of the last 50 years or so, in 90 % of them you would find this to be the case.

This article with the nonsensical balderdash seems like one more attempt to attack India as India is striving to be master of its own destiny.

Once again, gazing at your mission statement, I have to say that the above article does not sync with what San Diego Tribune-Union aspires to. This article neither spreads knowledge, nor is trying to build understanding, but it is actually spreading hate and building distress in one community. Such articles do not elevate civic discourse as this particular journalist has not pursued the path of truth but that of calumny.

I, therefore, request the editorial board to take this article down and take action against such a writer who creates a bad name for your publication.

Thanks 

Udit Shah

Canadian Citizen