By Shibayan Raha:
Namaste Swamiji,
Apologies for writing in English Swamiji. Since we are uneducated, urban, not-so-young people who eat meat and drink beer all the time; we prefer English as well. You might not remember me, though we have met quite a few times. I have even come to your office in Jantar Mantar. But that’s okay. I am one of those many meat eating, alcohol friendly youth whom you always dislike 🙂
I happened to read your statement in Times of India, “Rapes will come down if people shun meat, alcohol: Swami Agnivesh”. I won’t go into your reasons behind it as you know it much better than me. Your statement didn’t sound astonishing to me at all. Actually, you also followed the tradition of our dear politicians and some other swamiji’s who had taken the easy way out to blame women and other useless factors for the ongoing rape culture in this country. Let me give you some brief information about me and my Bengali culture. We are hardcore fish and mutton eaters. It’s like our religion. Bengalis can shun vegetables but they will never shun fish. My father is also one of them. But guess what Swami Jee, my father never indulged in any kind of violence against anyone, forget women. The work I am doing today is also because he inspired me in a way. He leads a righteous life and eats a lot of fish and meat. I his son, an organiser/activist, am also a hardcore non-veg consumer and a hardcore drinker in a way. I can drink beer like its water. Vodka and Gin are like amrit to me. But guess what? Till today I haven’t been involved in any kind of violent acts, forget about violence against women. I have drank and ate meat with my female friends but they have all been safe in my company. Actually, friends call me a ladies man since my quota of female friends is more than male friends. No one has ever complained that Shibayan is a misogynist or a violent man.
You have also quoted some report by a Japanese scientist. May I request you to make it public and put it forward for public debate? If nothing, but just for the sake of vindicating your stand. Will you please do it Swami Jee?
Let me quote my Kashmiri friend here to put everything in context: “Rape happens because rapists can get away with it. Everything else is just eyewash”
If time permits, I and a couple of friends are planning to organise an open air party in Jantar Mantar right outside your office. We plan to bring lot of meat and plenty of alcohol. We will send you a proper invitation to join us. Please do attend when it happens. Don’t worry, we will include some tasty vegetarian dishes too since we respect your choice.
With Love and Freedom,
Shibayan
Meat eater and Lover of Corona Beer
Devika Mittal
Sarcasm through and through…loved it. The constant reference to the “silly” dichotomy of Bharat v/s India by intellectuals, activists and politicians scares me!
Arun Sharma
Sarcasm is fine to the extent when you do not openly make fun of someone. everybody has different opinions and different suggestions to resolve problems based on his/her own lifestyle, upbringing and intellect. It is utterly wrong to ridicule somebody like this in public. What’s your suggestion on this? Rapes happen because rapists can get away with it? Why don’t you indulge in a rape then? Why don’t the 50 Crore plus men in this country rape the 50 crore plus women in this country if they will get away with it? The reasons are much deep within our culture, our law, our changing social habits and preferences, so any reason is not complete in itself.
It’s good to discuss the problems in open and criticize constructively to be able to reach a solution to the problem. But I don’t agree to your way of ridiculing people in public for their ‘personal’ opinions, especially when your own statement is no better.
Achilles Rasquinha
Arun Sharma – What are you talking man? Hitler was a vegetarian. So that solves this stupid hypothesis of Swamiji? No one ridiculed him, he ridiculed himself, the author just encouraged for some more ridicule.
Madhav Sanatan
Arun Sharma – Is it OK if Swamyji is ridiculing the whole meat eating and alcohol drinking community and accusing it for rape. Then what about swamy Nithyananda who comes in the same league of swamyjis was video taped with an actress in a compromising situation. If its his personal opinion then he better keep it to himself. If he wants to go public with it he must consider what he thinks and if it is right or not. Such senseless comments are only to make these people famous among the similar thinking crowd in the country.
Biplab
It sounds like SRK movie dialogue “MY NAME IS KHAN AND I AM NOT A TERRORIST” ! Establishing connection between eating meat and rape is just absurd. I cannot say about being drunk, as a drunk person often loses good sense and involves themselves in bad and mostly unsocial activities. It varies from person to person who can consume how many glasses without losing good sense.
And this is to remember, a person remains innocent , not being a killer ONLY till he or she kills someone. None plans a rape or a killing in advance, unless he or she is a hard core criminal. So none can guarantee that he or she will never become a rapist or a killer in their entire life.
Ridhi Murari
Honestly, this article disturbs me, not because of differing opinions but due to the tone of the content. Agreed Swamiji’s statement might not hold true in general but I sincerely believe that by belittling someone you do not serve your purpose either.