Condemnation & Platitude

In the aftermath of any terror attacks, there is a rush (in India and in west) to condemn blasts. The condemnation has become benchmark for any secularist (pseudo-secularist, in popular parlance) to prove his/her secularism.

Alternatively there is expectation from Muslims to condemn blasts in order to reaffirm his/her Indian roots. The second instinct is to assert how India is a resilient country and nothing can deter the Indians.

I think this is just lots of hot air.

No, I don’t mean that there should not be any condemnation. If there has to be any civil society, such acts need to be denounced.

First problem is this indignation and cheer leading has a diminishing return.

After the first attack, the condemnation and all the pep talk about how Indians are resilient, is effective. It boosts the morale and discourages any fringe group to manipulate the masses. After second attack, the return is diminished, after nth attack only the gullible believe in this (which is not a bad thing considering we are all gullible at sometime)

Second problem which is much more serious is that such kind of knee jerk responses are just symptoms of “politically correct” shallowness and ignores the real issue which is growing radicalism.

This ofcourse is somewhat intentional and arises out of a righteous albeit misguided bent of mind. The intention here is to protect “minorities” from real or imagined threats from “majority”.*

The result however is to cover up the causes and discourage any serious discussion on terrorism. The result is that terrorism and what is more serious radicalization continues. Another result is that in long run, even the “minorities” which are hurt by this process, first by antipathy of “majority”, second by handing over power to radical elements in minority group.

Therefore this rhetoric of condemnation and platitudes to India is all fine, but we need to go beyond it, and try to address the issue.

Sadly this is not happening “secular” media (Indian express, TOI, The Hindu, NDTV) covered the Varanasi blasts for 3 days, condemned it using the right words, waxed eloquent on Indian people and gave the story a silent burial.

Even in blogosphere except for Atanu , Nitin, Arnab and Cynical Nerd hardly any of the prominent secular blogger bothered to investigate the issues.

I think this issue is grave enough to deserve our serious attention. Yet I do not think that there will a Blog-O-Thon on this. Too politically incorrect for such things.

But yes they did get time to comment on proposed Rath Yatra of Mr. Lal Krishna Advani.

*I say imagined because contrary to what is projected in secular media, it is not as if (fundamentalist) Hindus have been butchering Muslims. If anything the account of carnage would turn out to be balanced. I will not engage here in Hindu did it first or Muslims did it first, Hindu-Muslim relations are very complicated to reduce into such simple equations.

Our Politicians, Their Politicians

So you think that it is only Indian politicians who are demagogue and pander to their base.
Well then sample this,

Hillary Clinton (D-Senator - NY) speaking at Martin Luther King celebration to predominantly black audience, “The Congress has been run like a plantation by Republicans”
GWB gets a lot of flack for his lack of language comprehension, however all said and done he doesn’t indulge in character assassinations.

But!

GWB on being asked about Intelligent Design controversy, “I think Intelligent Design should be discussed along with Darwinian evolution”
While we are at it, I demand that theory of stokes should be discussed along with theory of sexual reproduction.
I am thankful that for all our superstitions, India doesn’t have this controversy.
Ofcourse this doesn’t stop our leaders to take a dip in Ganga or perform a yagna whenever there is solar eclipse.

And!

Ray Nagin (D- Mayor of New Orleans) speaking at a conference, “When New Orleans is rebuilt, it will be a chocolate city”, I bet if some white conservative to say that, there will a big outcry against “The Man”.

Kashmir

For once and all I want to settle question of J & K.

First at the time of partition, although it was a Muslim majority state it was being ruled by a Hindu king (Maharaja Hari Singh )who was facing a popular resistance being led by Sheikh Abdullah.
Now Pakistan claimed J&K on the basis of it being Muslim majority state.
However King was unwilling to do so, he wanted to have an independent state and so he delayed. Pakistan afraid that king will accede to India launched an attack using tribes. King asked help from India, but India refused to help until King acceded to India taking Sheikh Abdullah into confidence. Now it is difficult to believe today but during partition J&K was largely unaffected by rioting, in fact it was for most part picture of communal harmony. Sheikh Abdullah himself was not enthusiastic about joining Pakistan, so he agreed to the accession.

After King had signed the instrument of accession Indian army joined the war and was almost successful in repelling the attacking and could have repulsed the tribal forces. However Nehru acting contrary to political wisdom (not for the first time or for the last time) decided to go to UN under “unlawful foreign incursion”, however under Anglo-American bloc political maneuvering UN passed a resolution under “disputed territory”. The first condition of resolution was that Pakistan remove her army from J&K territory. This Pakistan never did and therefore I think it is absurd to expect now India to call referendum, in short it is a closed chapter.

Another meme is how Kashmiri terrorism is a result of poverty, unemployment or Indian Army. This is another falsehood. The terrorism started in 1986 after more than 37 years of Indian rule, before that Kashmiris had no problem. In fact when Pakistani Army sent intruders in J & K in 1965, to its dismay not only the local population did not support the incursion, it helped India against them.

Also one reason that is counted for terrorism is how Congress rigged elections in 1987 with National Conference. While the way Congress formed a coalition was absurd, this was in no way limited to J&K, the natural conclusion of above absurd assertion would be that Bengalis and Biharis also become terrorists.

The terrorism in Kashmir was direct fallout of Afganistan conflict between USSR and USA. Pakistan used American money and weapons meant for Afganistani Mujahideen to incite terrorism in J&K. In this way America could have been said to sponsor Kashmiri terrorism.

A spark neglected

The bomb blasts in Varanasi released my anger which was building up since long time, to be specific since UPA came to power. No, I don’t claim that BJP is perfect. I am not very proud of the fact that Mr Vajpayee let Musharraf make a comeback, I am also not very proud of what happened in Gujarat.
However all said and done, if I have to make a choice between political parties it is going to be BJP for three seasons

1) It is a nationalist party
2) It doesn’t treat Hindu like dirty rags
3) Only in BJP, one can become a leader, irrespective of his/her background or surname.

Since this present abomination came to power, it has done everything from subverting the constitution, to pandering to vested interest in Muslim communities, to genuflecting before naxalites, to communalizing foreign policy and to convert union cabinet into a criminal line up.
The Prime Minister is a joke and one of the worst lame duck leaders having never been elected in Lok Sabha and presently representing Assam without being a resident of the state.

The real power behind PM, Sonia Gandhi is a moron, who if not for her surname would be serving pizzas.

And yet, even though government is blundering from one scandal to another scandal, media is treating the government with kid gloves. Journalists like Shekhar Gupta are playing loyal opposition, absolving PM and Sonia Gandhi from any charge. NDTV for all purposes has become a Congress mouth piece.
This is one of the most irresponsible government with the minister working on cross purposes and contradicting PM, and yet the media is not taking PM to task, letting him go away with anything and everything.

Ofcourse there is a simple explanation. English media comprising almost exclusively of secularists (who more often than not graduated from some school beginning with St.), are doing their damnest to keep BJP out of power.
This government is not about economic reform. If anything Chidambaram and Arun Shourie have more in common than between Chidambaram and Sitaram Yechuri. This is to keep BJP out, this is to keep secular stranglehold, this is to keep Hindus as second grade citizens and Muslims as third grade citizens.

The upshot is I reacted in a rather negative way. Since it is out of way I hope I will not burst a vein soon.

War on Kites

Via Indian Express

Pak arrests 1000 kite-flyers under terror laws

"Pakistan has detained 1,000 people for flying kites and warned they could be tried as terrorists after 10 people were killed in a week by strings coated with glass or made from metal"

I can not emphasize this enought.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Kites sare evil. If you let your children fly them, they will grow up to be terrorist.

Offense to Christians

You want offensive cartoons ?
Try this (Via michelle malkin)












I don't think there is any need to explain.

Even though I am a Hindu, and even though I disagree with Christians, I find it disgusting.
That is why I think that freedom without responsibility is a dangerous thing.

Also why this will not be a problem with liberals in west.

Recommendation

I recommend following blogs

http://mysticsaint.blogspot.com, It is highly informative on spirituality and religion.

http://reve3.blogspot.com, for refreshing prose.