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Remove Advani Pic from Demagogue Wall: Community Leader

A P Kamath

For nearly five years, India's Home Minister L K Advani has been sharing space with Saddam Hussein and Idi Amin on a Demagogue Wall at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. The five-year-old museum is part of the Simon Weisenthal Center and has exhibitions and a library devoted to the Holocaust. Four years ago it awarded the Dalai Lama with its annual peace award.

It also offers exhibits and courses about racial and religious hatred across the world. Advani's picture was included in the exhibition apparently because someone thought the rath yatra that he led across India culminated in the destruction of the Babri Masjid, feels Sunil Aghi, a community leader and businessman in Los Angeles.

Aghi fired a letter this week to Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Weisenthal Center, demanding the Advani picture be removed.

"The picture has been there for such a long time but none of us knew about it till a friend who visited the museum recently," Aghi said.

Aghi and Rabbi Marvin Heir, the founder of the Wiesenthal Center, are on a commission constituted recently by Lieutenant Cruz Bustamante to promote unity and tolerance.

Aghi says he has not heard from the rabbi, but he feels that his letter will get a positive response. His letter reminded the rabbi that "Advani is an outspoken proponent of stronger Indo-Israeli ties".

The letter said Advani "has not endorsed, ratified or participated in the abuse of any group of people, nor has he acquiesced to the demands of others to remove fundamental human rights from any group."

A few months ago Aghi invoked the wrath of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and allied groups when he endorsed an edited version of an episode of the television series Xena, which showed Hindu gods as mortal creatures.

"I am not defending Advani because I have embraced the BJP or the Hindutva concept," he says, adding that he is still opposed to the protests that greeted the movie, Eyes Wide Shut and the Xena episode.

"I would have written a similar letter to the rabbi if some other Indian leader was given the kind of treatment meted out to Advani," Aghi said.

"India cannot be shown as a brutal regime that does not care for human rights, and that is why I will fight to have Advani's picture be removed."

Museum officials were not available for comment, but have promised to get back.

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Xena Producer Defends Ally Sunil Aghi

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