OK, so the man for this week of Mr Abdul Rehman Antulay, Minister for Minority Affairs of the Govt Of India. Apparently Mr Antulay aired his "suspicions" that it was sheer coincidence that all the senior offices of the Mumbai ATS, including Late Mr Karkare, who apparently was one of the "few" genuinely secular and honest police officers in India went to Cama Hospital rather than the Taj". I am pretty sure that any account by the eyewitnesses including the injured policeman at that spot who was with Mr Karkare would reveal the chain of events for that day.
1) To be honest, I am appalled by the media reaction, and for the umpteenth time, we in India has shied away from doing a serious self introspection of the kind of secularism we follow. Agreed, that being a Minister in the Govt of India, Mr Antulays comments were irresponsible, but Mr Antulay is a symptom, not the disease afflicting the Indian Political space. For that matter, Mr Modi, Mr Tagodia, Mr Advani, The shahi Imam of Delhi, the Shiromani Akali Dal in Amritsar, all and I repeat, all of them as institutions/Parties/Individuals are just the symptoms of a deeper malaise afflicting India. You can bash all these guys anytime you want, you can plead them every day to rise above their prejudices and narrow vote bank politics, but all this amounts to asking a TB patient, not to cough. Cough is the symptom, TB is the disease. :)
2)Look at the history of the subcontinent, we have had bloodbath and trouble each time religion has "transgressed" into Political space. Pakistan is not wrong entirely when it asks India to look at its Mirror, when it brandishes a Sachar report to question India about the possibility of fifth column, or when it shows the likes of Advani/Tagodia/Modi and plays the "allienation" card. Similarly, Indian Muslims are also right when they say that they should not be made to prove their loyalty to Indian state every time there is terror in the name of Islam, similarly, their grievance about misuse of so called "Draconian Laws" is legitimate and from a neutral perspective, there is also a reason for increasing number of Hindus drifting towards the sangh and its affiliates.This is the breeding ground of the disease, the environment, which facilitates the diseases. Like those unkempt and polluted neighborhoods as compared to TB example.
3) Lets analyze the argument further, take the example of Sikh Militancy of the 70's to the late 80's. This was the time when Sikhism as a religion was allowed to transgress into Political space. This was the disease, namely of allowing religion, and facilitating the entry of religious zealots in the Political Space, who did it and what were the reasons is immaterial in the present analysis, but a honest evaluation of the events would prove that, until Sikhism only was preached at the "Golden Temple' in Amritsar, we were fine, the moment political discourse started flowing from there, we were in trouble, we ended up with the unfortunate situation of taking our Tanks into the holy shrine and hurting the emotions of the patriotic Sikhs :(
4) Take the instance of Babri demolition, was it not again a case of Religion transgressing into the Politics ? Opening up the Gates of Somnath and Babri, and allowing a particular amount of religious transgression, namely the interference of VHP, the RSS and even Muslim organizations like the MPLB and the Ulemas in the policy making resulted in the unfortunate events that culminated on Dec 6 of the fateful year and makes the head of the Indian state hang in shame every where.
5) Godhra also is testimony to the same malice that has afflicted us, we keep on allowing religion into Public space and polity.
6) Just in case you brand me a "Pseudo Secular", I would also emphasize an example of the Shah Bano Case, The day the Indian government showed its impotency to stand up to Muslim religious extremism and was not able to provide a small amount of money as alimony, it allowed Islam to transgress into Political Space. Now we have a Parallel Sharia Law being enforced in the name of MLPB. Every time it allows the Shahi Imam of Delhi to speak into his mosque, and berate the Indian Democracy, allows him to make rants like not flying the National Flag on republic day, the Indian state allows transgression of religion into politics. Every time we bring religious affliction to contest singing even national patriotic songs, we gave scope for the disease to spread.
7) The Role of Pakistan: The role of Pakistan has just been that of a "Catalyst" to the Indian disease. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan was born "Islamic" its masses largely support the totally "Sharia" compliant nature of its rule of state. India by itself agreed to be secular. So the only thing Pakistan can actually be accused of is facilitating the training, indoctrination , moral and physical support of subversive activities by the Indian 5Th column, be it the Sikh Militants of yesteryear's, the Radical Muslim fringe of today or the Insurgents of NE. Apart from this, Pakistan can not be blamed for the other ills, now Pakistan for sure is a catalyst and I am not trying to absolve it of its sins here.
8) The Recent Hindu Right Wing extremism: By recent, i do not mean to say that we never had Right Wing Extremism in India, saying that would be to be in a denial mode. What i want to emphasize on is the recent trend in change of the methods employed by the right wing. The point that people miss, largely is that, the main accused in the Malegoan case is an "Army Man" who was trained in explosives. This is no surprise to me, as the right wing desperately needed this, this is one aspect that the right wing in India never had, that is physical training and guidance in arms and ammunition handling. If you look at all the incidents before Malegaon, be it Godhra or Mumbai or Babri, the Hindu Right wing could never use sophisticated military grade explosives (RDX), it hardly used the automatics that Islamic and Sikh militants used, just for the specific reason that it never had the "catalyst", it never had some one like "Pakistan" whose army(ISI) could train them :)
The LTTE could do it, because the Indian Army was the catalyst, but the Hindu Right wing till Col Purohit came in was more reliant on mob culture, it used the numbers which favor the majority to show its Muscle. So it shouldn't really come as a surprise that Hindu Right wing and Christian Right wing have largely used mass mobilization and riots as weapons unlike the Islamic/Sikh radicals.
9) We as Indians, allowed free discourse of religion in society assuming that it wold be used responsibly. We chose not to be secular the "French" or "Turkish" way. But the problem is that, the way we chose was the toughest, it was based on the assumption that, each group would act in a civilized way, with utmost restraint and accommodation of ideas/faith along with a high degree of tolerance. We failed to play by the rules, be it Hindu's, be it Muslims or Sikhs or Christians, we largely failed to our stated objective. We let our Gods, Government and Guardians down.
10) We can sure take Pakistan to task for acting as "catalyst" but till we tell our Mullahs/Pundits/Priests to keep religious discourse from transgressing into our Politics, we will never be able to win the war on Terror at least inside India. Bombing the Catalyst might reduce the speed of spread of the disease, but would not eliminate it completely, we need to sanitize the surroundings, have a clean society and then some medicine, some love, some prayers could alleviate our pain :) Amen!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Saber or Sober?
This week has seen immense Sabre rattling from the two nuclear neighbours in South East Asia, both Indian and Pakistan Media and some sections of the society in general baying for each others blood. Some quarters even emphasizing on the Nuke card and dooms day scenario.
1) The silver lining in the clouds seems to be the fact that both the GOVT's have shown remarkable restraint. Considering that the National elections are round the corner in India in summer, the restraint shown by all political parties is commendable, it is very important that we do not get jingoistic at this delicate hour. Yes agreed our restraint has its limitations, and we wont allow our motherland to be raped every once in a while by Islamic/Hindu Jihadists or extremist of any other hue. We should at least show to the world that we would support the Pakistani civilian government in cracking down genuinely on these extremist groups in Pakistani soil and help in any way possible. At the same time, we need to ratchet up the diplomatic pressure, and make the world known that we have all options open on the table.
2) Pakistani and Indian media have escalated the situation a bit, this time around it seems its the media playing to the gallery rather than the politicians. Both need to observe restraint, action has to be on the ground not on the TV studios. :)
3) India needs to decide strongly on some issues. India needs to understand that it can not afford to fight inside its own territory, it needs to move the war to an external theatre so that the collateral damage that we might need to take is more related to the Armed forces and civilian interests are protected and at the same time we must not openly state that we are at war. Seems confusing right? Well the point I am trying to make is , we would not officially go to war, no use of "Shock and Awe", if we do that Pakistan surely will blackmail the world on a nuclear catastrophe. We would lose the existing support of international community for flaring up the region. We can not afford a nuclear war, which ever sides argument we deem fit, Pakistanis believe they have the right to first use and they would use the nukes if India shows signs of aggression and believes that this right would protect it, and from an Indian perspective, hardliners assume that If India is nuked Pakistan would also be wiped out, well both are extremist scenarios. We do not need to go to that extent, we need to keep the diplomatic channel alive and pay Pakistan back in some of its own coin.
4) India needs to assure its minority community that helping stabilize Afghanistan is not undermining Islam, and then, we have a base in Tajikistan if I am not wrong, so lets move the theatre of conflict to western Pakistan. Pakistan has been trying to blackmail the US that it would have to move its forces to eastern front, and that would leave USA on one leg, so lets make USA strong, get our Army into Afghanistan, we have interests there, we can say we want to protect the infrastructure and men that India has provided to help Afghanistan. Yes Pakistan would sure cry wolf and accuse the Indian missions of fermenting trouble but that should be fine, as long as our regulars do not cross Afghanistan, we can always get away, if any one is caught in Pakistan destroying these terror infrastructure, we would also say they are "non-state" actors and give a rousing speech about how we are also victims and how it is it in the interest of both countries to sort the mess out :P
5) It is time we drop the so called "Gujral Doctrine" and restart covert operations in Pakistani territory, it is a point to note that we did have some capability before, and the Baluchis have always had a soft corner for India, The Bugti who was assassinated this year by the Pakistan army was probably the most secular voice in Pakistan, we need to make sure we have some assets inside Pakistan and that would also give us the moral high point that we are showing restraint against the civilian government of Pakistan but at the same time protecting our strategic interests.
6) Its time we understand the problem of religious extremism be it of the SIMI kind or the VHP kind, we need to rise and condemn both forms. Also, lets not give stupid theories about poverty and oppression. If poverty was the reason, then the misguided Muslim youth should have joined the Maoists not the jihadis. Take this example, say india has 100 people, out of which say 60% is below poverty line, this means approximately 10 muslim and 45 non muslim youth are below poverty line, not well educated, not having good access to governance, so how does it so happen that relatively less numbers of the non muslim groups end up in religious extremism of the kind perpetuated by Muslim extremism? The root cause is not poverty or education as the recent arrests have indicated, even highly educated youth are getting attracted to this wrong idea of Islam propagated by the Mullahs of certain organizations. Islam stands for peace, and India allows any Muslim to practice Islam without any interference, and I think the only solution that will bring peace should and can come only from the Mullahs. They can only save India, they need to declare that Jihad against India is not permissible.
7) We would sure see some remarkable improvement in governance now, some politicians have behaved in a more admirable manner in the past week, so lets hope we achieve our ends without having to go to war, which is not in the interest of any one. I would like to appeal to the people of Pakistan that no Indian dislikes them, but yes, they can not afford to be in denial, extremism and militant Islam would not help them also in any case, I hope they wake up sooner than later and save the Islamic Republic Of Pakistan from stagnation and destruction. Do they really believe that their Qaid-e- Azam formed Pakistan for what it is today?
8) War need not be fought with fighter planes and Tanks, lets fight it, but in a more subtle way, lets strengthen the civilian government in Pakistan and hit at the extremists.
Would the saber win or would sober have the honors of the day?:)
1) The silver lining in the clouds seems to be the fact that both the GOVT's have shown remarkable restraint. Considering that the National elections are round the corner in India in summer, the restraint shown by all political parties is commendable, it is very important that we do not get jingoistic at this delicate hour. Yes agreed our restraint has its limitations, and we wont allow our motherland to be raped every once in a while by Islamic/Hindu Jihadists or extremist of any other hue. We should at least show to the world that we would support the Pakistani civilian government in cracking down genuinely on these extremist groups in Pakistani soil and help in any way possible. At the same time, we need to ratchet up the diplomatic pressure, and make the world known that we have all options open on the table.
2) Pakistani and Indian media have escalated the situation a bit, this time around it seems its the media playing to the gallery rather than the politicians. Both need to observe restraint, action has to be on the ground not on the TV studios. :)
3) India needs to decide strongly on some issues. India needs to understand that it can not afford to fight inside its own territory, it needs to move the war to an external theatre so that the collateral damage that we might need to take is more related to the Armed forces and civilian interests are protected and at the same time we must not openly state that we are at war. Seems confusing right? Well the point I am trying to make is , we would not officially go to war, no use of "Shock and Awe", if we do that Pakistan surely will blackmail the world on a nuclear catastrophe. We would lose the existing support of international community for flaring up the region. We can not afford a nuclear war, which ever sides argument we deem fit, Pakistanis believe they have the right to first use and they would use the nukes if India shows signs of aggression and believes that this right would protect it, and from an Indian perspective, hardliners assume that If India is nuked Pakistan would also be wiped out, well both are extremist scenarios. We do not need to go to that extent, we need to keep the diplomatic channel alive and pay Pakistan back in some of its own coin.
4) India needs to assure its minority community that helping stabilize Afghanistan is not undermining Islam, and then, we have a base in Tajikistan if I am not wrong, so lets move the theatre of conflict to western Pakistan. Pakistan has been trying to blackmail the US that it would have to move its forces to eastern front, and that would leave USA on one leg, so lets make USA strong, get our Army into Afghanistan, we have interests there, we can say we want to protect the infrastructure and men that India has provided to help Afghanistan. Yes Pakistan would sure cry wolf and accuse the Indian missions of fermenting trouble but that should be fine, as long as our regulars do not cross Afghanistan, we can always get away, if any one is caught in Pakistan destroying these terror infrastructure, we would also say they are "non-state" actors and give a rousing speech about how we are also victims and how it is it in the interest of both countries to sort the mess out :P
5) It is time we drop the so called "Gujral Doctrine" and restart covert operations in Pakistani territory, it is a point to note that we did have some capability before, and the Baluchis have always had a soft corner for India, The Bugti who was assassinated this year by the Pakistan army was probably the most secular voice in Pakistan, we need to make sure we have some assets inside Pakistan and that would also give us the moral high point that we are showing restraint against the civilian government of Pakistan but at the same time protecting our strategic interests.
6) Its time we understand the problem of religious extremism be it of the SIMI kind or the VHP kind, we need to rise and condemn both forms. Also, lets not give stupid theories about poverty and oppression. If poverty was the reason, then the misguided Muslim youth should have joined the Maoists not the jihadis. Take this example, say india has 100 people, out of which say 60% is below poverty line, this means approximately 10 muslim and 45 non muslim youth are below poverty line, not well educated, not having good access to governance, so how does it so happen that relatively less numbers of the non muslim groups end up in religious extremism of the kind perpetuated by Muslim extremism? The root cause is not poverty or education as the recent arrests have indicated, even highly educated youth are getting attracted to this wrong idea of Islam propagated by the Mullahs of certain organizations. Islam stands for peace, and India allows any Muslim to practice Islam without any interference, and I think the only solution that will bring peace should and can come only from the Mullahs. They can only save India, they need to declare that Jihad against India is not permissible.
7) We would sure see some remarkable improvement in governance now, some politicians have behaved in a more admirable manner in the past week, so lets hope we achieve our ends without having to go to war, which is not in the interest of any one. I would like to appeal to the people of Pakistan that no Indian dislikes them, but yes, they can not afford to be in denial, extremism and militant Islam would not help them also in any case, I hope they wake up sooner than later and save the Islamic Republic Of Pakistan from stagnation and destruction. Do they really believe that their Qaid-e- Azam formed Pakistan for what it is today?
8) War need not be fought with fighter planes and Tanks, lets fight it, but in a more subtle way, lets strengthen the civilian government in Pakistan and hit at the extremists.
Would the saber win or would sober have the honors of the day?:)
Saturday, December 6, 2008
At Cross Roads - An analysis
The gruesome act is over, now is time for introspection.
1) The Middle Class cares about governance?
Seems the Indian elite has suddenly woken up, one wonders why? Did it need an audacious attack of the scale of mumbai to make the middle and upper class in India to demand effective and efficient governance? The thing is that , we could not afford to outsource security of public places to private players. Well am still not a leftist, bit the fact is that, when the Indian state failed to provide quality education, we created good private schools paid for them or sent our kids to foreign lands, when the Indian state divided the seats in colleges on the basis of caste, we still found a way out, the rich and to an extent the upper middle class just sent kids to USA. Similarly when the Indian state failed to provide effective health care, we just created Apollo's and Care hospitals, our private sector created such good hospitals that India is looked at as a medical tourism destination showcasing world class health care at effective cost :)
The question is can we do the same to security? Can we allow Black water for India? Can we afford licensing automatics to citizens, well the answer is "NO" not at any cost, we can not afford that. We have no option but the Indian state to provide us security, and that's why even the private sector is out on the street, lighting candles and demanding governance :) We suddenly realise, the way be bribed bureaucrats in the past is the bane of security in a way..our "chalta hai" attitude has resulted in this mess, will this turn the winds and create good governance in India or will this also fade out? Only time has the answer, but lets hope for the best :P
2) Do we have an alternative for the Politician?
Yes, India's politicians are pathetic, indefensible, arrogant even treacherous at times and seems like suddenly the Indian middle class is fed up of it, but then one begs to ask the question, what are the other options? The worst years India ever had as a nation and civil society , are the years or emergency. So we know democracy is precious, don't we? The most important thing that makes me bow to Indian Armed forces in respect is that , no general has ever cast his eye on the Raisana Hill, thankfully, we never had a general with dictatorial tendencies, that's a blessing my fellow Indians, be proud of it. We sure don't need a general, we have seen all over Asia and South America what military rule does. I agree that Indian society has its problems, systemic deficiencies, the politics thrives on vote banks, but we can not afford to ditch the system, as Churchill once put it, Democracy is the worst system of governance, but the best among all other forms that have been tried :)
Please go ahead and vote in and vote out every time there is election, change the system by being in the system, else there is no difference between us and the Naxals, they are as harmful as terrorists, aren't they?
3) The Muslim Question:
Today is the anniversary of the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, I am ashamed that some right wing militants brought down the mosque, I am a Hindu but i condemn the act, whatever the controversy and provocation be. I sincerely hope that we rise above our historical religious bias and solve this issue once and for all.
But I see that the Indian Muslim is suddenly defensive, the Bakrid will be low key this time, but then we don't need them to sub due celebrations, we do understand that we have a fifth column in the Mumbai underworld and in the form of some misguided Muslim youth, but just that in no sense of the word makes all Muslims unpatriotic. Our Muslim brothers need not have to prove their patriotism for India, after all India has has a Muslim chief of Army staff, we should not make them prove themselves everyday, I trust my country men to the hilt, before being a Muslim, they are INDIANS.
But I have a plea, yes Babri was bad, Yes, the Mumbai Riots was a crime, Yes Godhra was state sponsored terrorism, at the minimum for the failure of state to not protect the minority community, but please, can we get over it? After so many years of Babri demolition, do we need to give a chance to terrorists to avenge it? How many deaths would avenge it? Lets move on, Lets pray for a better tomorrow, and in this context i remember the below lyrics:
Yeh Mandir hi woh Butkhana,
chahe ye mano ya woh mano,
Matlab to hi dil to Samjhana
chahe ye mano chahe woh mano...
4) Is Indian security tormenting minorities?
For once lets understand this in the context of bringing down insurgencies and terrorism. I do not think India has been targeting based on religion. When "Sikh" insurgency was at its peak, KPS Gill and company fought fire with fire, We used TADA and at that time also there were instances of human rights violations and misuse of TADA by the civil rights groups, so this is one instance of tougher laws involving random pickings and allegations of torture in some instances.
When naxalism was at its peak in Bengal, we did put down the predominantly "Hindu" naxals with an Iron fist, we had to detain people at times, may be Indian state gave some officers the license to kill also. So is the case in Manipur against the "Hindu" Insurgents where we have the AFSPA in force, there are violations and instances where the state is really tough.
In Nagaland, where the insurgency is lead by predominantly "christian" groups, the same allegations have been alleged time and again.
The point I am trying to make is, in the interest of nation building some times states do cross their line and transgress in to the civil liberties domain, we should vehemently oppose such transgressions but also give space to the security services to keep the house, nation in this case united. The unfortunate thing is terrorists have no constitution and no penal code to follow the processes. Human Rights group should understand this and then protest.
All in all, the Muslims are not the only ones who can allege such transgressions of civil liberties, when i go through American airports, i am pulled over for routine checks at least 30% of the times, but i don't feel bad, those guys are just doing their jobs. I understand some people are put to more hassles and it is irritation.
We need to stop playing victims at every instance, and some times try to have an inward analysis of situation and times we live in.
5) Would solving Kashmir solve everything?
In the Western media, the idea seems to be that solve Kashmir and everything will be rosy in the subcontinent. I don't quite agree with this whole assessment, the problem is that, militant Islam in the subcontinent has its eyes fixed on a larger area. Any research would prove that groups like Lashkar, Jaish, even the Al Qaida, want to establish an Islamic Caliphate, re group and have the flag of Islam flying over all lost lands, meaning, you give them Kashmir, they would want Hyderabad, Junagadh, Red fort, whole of India, and if agencies are to be believed , it ranges from Europe, to even northern tip of Australia. So its foolish to believe that solving Kashmir would solve this for ever, that is not possible, only solution is the Mullahs have to preach the real Quran, preach peace, because that's what true Islam stands for.
6) India's Options:
India should not and can not go to war, diplomacy should be exhausted first. I hope politicians wake up now and give us better governance, and internal security, then if everything else related to external diplomacy fails, we might use a limited option of either covert operations or air strikes.
Lets hope peace prevails and we don't need to get to that point:)
My country should be blessed by Ram, Allah, Jesus and Moses, cause we believe in all of them, none of them can afford to fail us :) Amen!
1) The Middle Class cares about governance?
Seems the Indian elite has suddenly woken up, one wonders why? Did it need an audacious attack of the scale of mumbai to make the middle and upper class in India to demand effective and efficient governance? The thing is that , we could not afford to outsource security of public places to private players. Well am still not a leftist, bit the fact is that, when the Indian state failed to provide quality education, we created good private schools paid for them or sent our kids to foreign lands, when the Indian state divided the seats in colleges on the basis of caste, we still found a way out, the rich and to an extent the upper middle class just sent kids to USA. Similarly when the Indian state failed to provide effective health care, we just created Apollo's and Care hospitals, our private sector created such good hospitals that India is looked at as a medical tourism destination showcasing world class health care at effective cost :)
The question is can we do the same to security? Can we allow Black water for India? Can we afford licensing automatics to citizens, well the answer is "NO" not at any cost, we can not afford that. We have no option but the Indian state to provide us security, and that's why even the private sector is out on the street, lighting candles and demanding governance :) We suddenly realise, the way be bribed bureaucrats in the past is the bane of security in a way..our "chalta hai" attitude has resulted in this mess, will this turn the winds and create good governance in India or will this also fade out? Only time has the answer, but lets hope for the best :P
2) Do we have an alternative for the Politician?
Yes, India's politicians are pathetic, indefensible, arrogant even treacherous at times and seems like suddenly the Indian middle class is fed up of it, but then one begs to ask the question, what are the other options? The worst years India ever had as a nation and civil society , are the years or emergency. So we know democracy is precious, don't we? The most important thing that makes me bow to Indian Armed forces in respect is that , no general has ever cast his eye on the Raisana Hill, thankfully, we never had a general with dictatorial tendencies, that's a blessing my fellow Indians, be proud of it. We sure don't need a general, we have seen all over Asia and South America what military rule does. I agree that Indian society has its problems, systemic deficiencies, the politics thrives on vote banks, but we can not afford to ditch the system, as Churchill once put it, Democracy is the worst system of governance, but the best among all other forms that have been tried :)
Please go ahead and vote in and vote out every time there is election, change the system by being in the system, else there is no difference between us and the Naxals, they are as harmful as terrorists, aren't they?
3) The Muslim Question:
Today is the anniversary of the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, I am ashamed that some right wing militants brought down the mosque, I am a Hindu but i condemn the act, whatever the controversy and provocation be. I sincerely hope that we rise above our historical religious bias and solve this issue once and for all.
But I see that the Indian Muslim is suddenly defensive, the Bakrid will be low key this time, but then we don't need them to sub due celebrations, we do understand that we have a fifth column in the Mumbai underworld and in the form of some misguided Muslim youth, but just that in no sense of the word makes all Muslims unpatriotic. Our Muslim brothers need not have to prove their patriotism for India, after all India has has a Muslim chief of Army staff, we should not make them prove themselves everyday, I trust my country men to the hilt, before being a Muslim, they are INDIANS.
But I have a plea, yes Babri was bad, Yes, the Mumbai Riots was a crime, Yes Godhra was state sponsored terrorism, at the minimum for the failure of state to not protect the minority community, but please, can we get over it? After so many years of Babri demolition, do we need to give a chance to terrorists to avenge it? How many deaths would avenge it? Lets move on, Lets pray for a better tomorrow, and in this context i remember the below lyrics:
Yeh Mandir hi woh Butkhana,
chahe ye mano ya woh mano,
Matlab to hi dil to Samjhana
chahe ye mano chahe woh mano...
4) Is Indian security tormenting minorities?
For once lets understand this in the context of bringing down insurgencies and terrorism. I do not think India has been targeting based on religion. When "Sikh" insurgency was at its peak, KPS Gill and company fought fire with fire, We used TADA and at that time also there were instances of human rights violations and misuse of TADA by the civil rights groups, so this is one instance of tougher laws involving random pickings and allegations of torture in some instances.
When naxalism was at its peak in Bengal, we did put down the predominantly "Hindu" naxals with an Iron fist, we had to detain people at times, may be Indian state gave some officers the license to kill also. So is the case in Manipur against the "Hindu" Insurgents where we have the AFSPA in force, there are violations and instances where the state is really tough.
In Nagaland, where the insurgency is lead by predominantly "christian" groups, the same allegations have been alleged time and again.
The point I am trying to make is, in the interest of nation building some times states do cross their line and transgress in to the civil liberties domain, we should vehemently oppose such transgressions but also give space to the security services to keep the house, nation in this case united. The unfortunate thing is terrorists have no constitution and no penal code to follow the processes. Human Rights group should understand this and then protest.
All in all, the Muslims are not the only ones who can allege such transgressions of civil liberties, when i go through American airports, i am pulled over for routine checks at least 30% of the times, but i don't feel bad, those guys are just doing their jobs. I understand some people are put to more hassles and it is irritation.
We need to stop playing victims at every instance, and some times try to have an inward analysis of situation and times we live in.
5) Would solving Kashmir solve everything?
In the Western media, the idea seems to be that solve Kashmir and everything will be rosy in the subcontinent. I don't quite agree with this whole assessment, the problem is that, militant Islam in the subcontinent has its eyes fixed on a larger area. Any research would prove that groups like Lashkar, Jaish, even the Al Qaida, want to establish an Islamic Caliphate, re group and have the flag of Islam flying over all lost lands, meaning, you give them Kashmir, they would want Hyderabad, Junagadh, Red fort, whole of India, and if agencies are to be believed , it ranges from Europe, to even northern tip of Australia. So its foolish to believe that solving Kashmir would solve this for ever, that is not possible, only solution is the Mullahs have to preach the real Quran, preach peace, because that's what true Islam stands for.
6) India's Options:
India should not and can not go to war, diplomacy should be exhausted first. I hope politicians wake up now and give us better governance, and internal security, then if everything else related to external diplomacy fails, we might use a limited option of either covert operations or air strikes.
Lets hope peace prevails and we don't need to get to that point:)
My country should be blessed by Ram, Allah, Jesus and Moses, cause we believe in all of them, none of them can afford to fail us :) Amen!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
The Opportunities: After the Mayhem
India is mourning this weekend, the Taj Hotel, the heritage building of Mumbai is destroyed, hapless India could not even save its guests, The citizens are angry, the armed forces have given 21 gun salutes to its martyrs.....
We will stand up again, India is a proud strong nation, The world probably paints it as a soft state, but actually the people of India have always been strong, they are the most resilient probably after the Jews world around. We will rebuild the Taj for sure, we will again make Mumbai bustle with economic activity, the damage is done - agreed, but lets look at the opportunities-
1) History is testimony that great tragedies unite the citizens at times, they bring an opportunity to forget the scars of the past, ignore the partisan differences and rise up as a nation. I believe this is the moment. The anger is there, there were no riots within India, no one can blame each other based on religion for once I did not hear a single comment that the "other" is responsible. Every one is united in saying that they stand by each other, we wont riot, we wont kill our own country men, yes we blame the political incompetence and negligence.
2) We caught one terrorist alive, that should be positive for sure, because not only does it allow us to gather more details related to investigation, but also makes it easier to retain the credibility of our security forces and investigative agencies. No one can or should blame now that the arrests made are communal profiling, or that this is also stage managed by the GOVT or the right wing Hindu or any "domestic" group.
3) This is also a chance to see how friendly USA is. If Barack Obama an his country put pressure on India to not retaliate and show restraint against Pakistan, this would expose the hollowness of USA's policies. After 09/11 there has not been a single attack on US homeland, am happy for USA that it is so able to protect its soil, but then, they have retailed hard, even to this day, there are incursions into Pakistani Territory to eliminate threats and terror infrastructure. If USA is entitled to carry out preemptive strikes why can not India do the same?
We have had enough sweet talk about "Worlds largest democracy" and the "Land of Gandhi", no one has been actually more exploited than Gandhi i believe :)
The point is will USA allow India to act to restore its self respect and pride or will it interfere to save its "other" friend on terror?
4) This is an opportunity for the Indian citizens to vote out the incompetent politicians, ask strongly for systemic changes which would at least give us good governance, one of the root causes in the case of India is a gurangutan political and bureaucratic failure.
I pay homage to the victims of the terror attack in Mumbai, pray for their families and HOPE my nation rises up again to set an example for the rest of the world to follow this time.
We will stand up again, India is a proud strong nation, The world probably paints it as a soft state, but actually the people of India have always been strong, they are the most resilient probably after the Jews world around. We will rebuild the Taj for sure, we will again make Mumbai bustle with economic activity, the damage is done - agreed, but lets look at the opportunities-
1) History is testimony that great tragedies unite the citizens at times, they bring an opportunity to forget the scars of the past, ignore the partisan differences and rise up as a nation. I believe this is the moment. The anger is there, there were no riots within India, no one can blame each other based on religion for once I did not hear a single comment that the "other" is responsible. Every one is united in saying that they stand by each other, we wont riot, we wont kill our own country men, yes we blame the political incompetence and negligence.
2) We caught one terrorist alive, that should be positive for sure, because not only does it allow us to gather more details related to investigation, but also makes it easier to retain the credibility of our security forces and investigative agencies. No one can or should blame now that the arrests made are communal profiling, or that this is also stage managed by the GOVT or the right wing Hindu or any "domestic" group.
3) This is also a chance to see how friendly USA is. If Barack Obama an his country put pressure on India to not retaliate and show restraint against Pakistan, this would expose the hollowness of USA's policies. After 09/11 there has not been a single attack on US homeland, am happy for USA that it is so able to protect its soil, but then, they have retailed hard, even to this day, there are incursions into Pakistani Territory to eliminate threats and terror infrastructure. If USA is entitled to carry out preemptive strikes why can not India do the same?
We have had enough sweet talk about "Worlds largest democracy" and the "Land of Gandhi", no one has been actually more exploited than Gandhi i believe :)
The point is will USA allow India to act to restore its self respect and pride or will it interfere to save its "other" friend on terror?
4) This is an opportunity for the Indian citizens to vote out the incompetent politicians, ask strongly for systemic changes which would at least give us good governance, one of the root causes in the case of India is a gurangutan political and bureaucratic failure.
I pay homage to the victims of the terror attack in Mumbai, pray for their families and HOPE my nation rises up again to set an example for the rest of the world to follow this time.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
An Ode to the Fab Five- Hats off!!
Sportsmen are more than just mortals, they have the ability to define the character of a nation, help carve dreams of a society, bring breathless moments to life, unite people, dissolve barriers of caste,religion and regionalism in case of INDIA.
Cricket in India is a religion, if anything else can unite the country, its probably the hatred for Pakistan, but except that cricket rules, and if it rules Indian hearts, in the last decade, five men are responsible for mentoring the game, getting laurels for the country, instilling confidence - Yes, Sachin, Rahul, Saurav, Laxman and Kumble are the men.
Sachin: Boy he is a genius, and i swear, Raj Thackrey can not stop any Indian from any corner of the country to stake a claim of pride in this marathi manus. He started at 16, gave us many a memorable moment, i still remember the bleeding nose in a test in Pakistan form a Waqar Snorter, and the "Mai Khelega" story still raises a few hairs of excitement. The Sharjah innings is still unforgettable, the demolition of Shane Warne is still haunting a few aussies apart form the Warnie himself, no other man in recent history has given so much happiness to a nation, every time Sachin scored, every single run that came from his bat, led to cheers in India. Of course, we greedy Indians burdened him, we did expect a century everytime, we probed his cars, his life, everything, and being a mortal he did give us moments of despair, but well, no Sachin Effigy has ever been burnt, and I am sure, this Bradman of India will retire with grace and leave us moments to cherish always.
Rahul the Wall: Rahul is my personal favourite. He is probably the most good looking of the fab five, bet he broke a few hearts ;). Technically, i don't think India has seen a better batsman. Be it cape town, Durban, Leeds, Brisbane, Rahul "the wall" has saved tests for India. Rahul is a professor, the cover drives, the immaculate defence, the cool head, well he is the "Mr Dependable". Has any one shown more responsibility in an Indian team, he opened when required, he kept wickets to accommodate that extra batsman, he won a test series in England and west indies. I did feel sad when the crowd in Sydney Test booed him for taking 48 deliveries for a single, and only a Dravid could have taken that boo in a sporty way, he shrugged off and went back to his usual technically right way. No one has saved more matches than this guy, and no one ever could possibly be more selfless. Hats off Mr Dependable!!
Laxman: Vengipurrapu Venkata Sai Laxman... Very Very Special Laxman, Boy! No Indian mom has been able to give birth to a better timer of the cricket ball till date. This guy is an artist, probably the best India has, see that delivery wide outside off stump flicked down to square leg, and you can see how gifted he is. He has the usual afflictions of an artist, some times he fails, sometimes he seems withdrawn, lost in his world,looks stupid with his shot selection, but ability, he has plenty, can any Indian of the current generation forget that splendid Innings in the Eden, did any other innings in Indian history, take the Indian pride to such heights? That Sydney, that Kotla, that Eden, cricket is music and art when this guy plays....I wonder if bowlers realise they are being plundered when he is on song, may be they enjoy the show..that's why all the big big hundreds :)
Saurav : Dada, the God on Offside: I haven't seen David Gower live, only some recorded shots, but i feel our own Dada was way better, he really is a God on the offside.No one was courted more controversies in recent times, we loved it when Dada took off his shirt in Lords, we said India has become assertive now, India has become confident, we can stare in the eyes of the white bullies! When he choose the next generation, we admired him, he gave us a zaheer, a sehwag, a Dhoni, he nurtured a new India. He had his share of shadows, his affair with Nagma, his problems with Chappel, his arrogance in the dressing room, but we cared a damn, we loved his cover drives, we love Dada stepping out to put the ball to the long off stands. Dada will play his last test in Nagpur next week, and Indian cricket should give him the best send off they can, for like it or not, he is still the most successful Indian Captain.
Dada is the "DADA" of Indian cricket, Hail the God on offside :)
Anil Kumble: Jumbo as he is known, has been a real "jumbo" for India, a tireless fighter, i don't think India has seen as relentless, as dedicated a player as Anil in recent times. He took all 10 Pakistani wickets in Kotla, crossed Kapil Dev to be the highest Wicket taker for India, never courted any controversy of a personal nature, been a role model as such for any youngster.He retires today, and India will start the search for a spin ace again, we have Bhajji, but Bhajji in spite of all his talent, is not a role model, he is too aggressive, too emotional, we need another Kumble, we will miss our Jumbo and I hope we find one soon. Hats off to Anil Bhai for the splendid job he has done for India, we will miss him sure.
Each individual mentioned in this blog has been great in his own right, contributed to Indian cricket in his own might. They sowed the seeds for the "Chak De"generation. Take a bow guys!!
Cricket in India is a religion, if anything else can unite the country, its probably the hatred for Pakistan, but except that cricket rules, and if it rules Indian hearts, in the last decade, five men are responsible for mentoring the game, getting laurels for the country, instilling confidence - Yes, Sachin, Rahul, Saurav, Laxman and Kumble are the men.
Sachin: Boy he is a genius, and i swear, Raj Thackrey can not stop any Indian from any corner of the country to stake a claim of pride in this marathi manus. He started at 16, gave us many a memorable moment, i still remember the bleeding nose in a test in Pakistan form a Waqar Snorter, and the "Mai Khelega" story still raises a few hairs of excitement. The Sharjah innings is still unforgettable, the demolition of Shane Warne is still haunting a few aussies apart form the Warnie himself, no other man in recent history has given so much happiness to a nation, every time Sachin scored, every single run that came from his bat, led to cheers in India. Of course, we greedy Indians burdened him, we did expect a century everytime, we probed his cars, his life, everything, and being a mortal he did give us moments of despair, but well, no Sachin Effigy has ever been burnt, and I am sure, this Bradman of India will retire with grace and leave us moments to cherish always.
Rahul the Wall: Rahul is my personal favourite. He is probably the most good looking of the fab five, bet he broke a few hearts ;). Technically, i don't think India has seen a better batsman. Be it cape town, Durban, Leeds, Brisbane, Rahul "the wall" has saved tests for India. Rahul is a professor, the cover drives, the immaculate defence, the cool head, well he is the "Mr Dependable". Has any one shown more responsibility in an Indian team, he opened when required, he kept wickets to accommodate that extra batsman, he won a test series in England and west indies. I did feel sad when the crowd in Sydney Test booed him for taking 48 deliveries for a single, and only a Dravid could have taken that boo in a sporty way, he shrugged off and went back to his usual technically right way. No one has saved more matches than this guy, and no one ever could possibly be more selfless. Hats off Mr Dependable!!
Laxman: Vengipurrapu Venkata Sai Laxman... Very Very Special Laxman, Boy! No Indian mom has been able to give birth to a better timer of the cricket ball till date. This guy is an artist, probably the best India has, see that delivery wide outside off stump flicked down to square leg, and you can see how gifted he is. He has the usual afflictions of an artist, some times he fails, sometimes he seems withdrawn, lost in his world,looks stupid with his shot selection, but ability, he has plenty, can any Indian of the current generation forget that splendid Innings in the Eden, did any other innings in Indian history, take the Indian pride to such heights? That Sydney, that Kotla, that Eden, cricket is music and art when this guy plays....I wonder if bowlers realise they are being plundered when he is on song, may be they enjoy the show..that's why all the big big hundreds :)
Saurav : Dada, the God on Offside: I haven't seen David Gower live, only some recorded shots, but i feel our own Dada was way better, he really is a God on the offside.No one was courted more controversies in recent times, we loved it when Dada took off his shirt in Lords, we said India has become assertive now, India has become confident, we can stare in the eyes of the white bullies! When he choose the next generation, we admired him, he gave us a zaheer, a sehwag, a Dhoni, he nurtured a new India. He had his share of shadows, his affair with Nagma, his problems with Chappel, his arrogance in the dressing room, but we cared a damn, we loved his cover drives, we love Dada stepping out to put the ball to the long off stands. Dada will play his last test in Nagpur next week, and Indian cricket should give him the best send off they can, for like it or not, he is still the most successful Indian Captain.
Dada is the "DADA" of Indian cricket, Hail the God on offside :)
Anil Kumble: Jumbo as he is known, has been a real "jumbo" for India, a tireless fighter, i don't think India has seen as relentless, as dedicated a player as Anil in recent times. He took all 10 Pakistani wickets in Kotla, crossed Kapil Dev to be the highest Wicket taker for India, never courted any controversy of a personal nature, been a role model as such for any youngster.He retires today, and India will start the search for a spin ace again, we have Bhajji, but Bhajji in spite of all his talent, is not a role model, he is too aggressive, too emotional, we need another Kumble, we will miss our Jumbo and I hope we find one soon. Hats off to Anil Bhai for the splendid job he has done for India, we will miss him sure.
Each individual mentioned in this blog has been great in his own right, contributed to Indian cricket in his own might. They sowed the seeds for the "Chak De"generation. Take a bow guys!!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Is there a CENTER anymore?
I think India has lost its center, everyone I repeat everyone is an extremist or conforms to some extremist thought. It is really unfortunate that we have reached this point in civil society. Let me try to give some examples in support of my assertions:
1) BJP, VHP, SIMI and all are extreme right, I condemn all religious right irrespective of which community, majority or minority, but the question is , do we have moderates any more? I don't think so, the secular (so called) are also becoming more extreme in their zeal to defend the minorities against the majorities, the perceived notions of injustice are being fanned up, some say for political gains, some say for genuine reasons, some just to espouse a cause to rally the masses, which ever way you look at, one extreme takes law into its hands, tries to damage civil society, and the other extreme tries to question the same law enforcement, doubts every action of the state, both are extreme in their own right.
2) Look at the young in India, they either want to Vote, or they don't want to, they are oblivious to any other consequence.
3) India either wants big time industrialization or it doesn't want anything to do with it, at the cost of getting stuck in poverty, its become a choice of either capitalism or socialism, there is no middle ground visible anywhere.
4) You can either smoke and get arrested, or you stop smoking, there is no space earmarked where a smoker can smoke peacefully.I mean there is no middle path as such, i hope soon the state wont dictate as to how many times one should have sex with his/spouse in a week and what positions are allowed as per Islam/Hinduism/Christianity or the IPC :)
5) Either you get reservations for ever, or you don't get any ever.
Indian civil society seriously needs to think how it is behaving, burning trains and buses, getting goons like Raj to solve labor issues, people like Mamta blocking Highways, is there an optimism left? The problem seems to be that every Indian citizen is suddenly aware of his RIGHTS but cares two hoots about his/her responsibilities. Its a false notion of protective socialist democracy that has given us this state.
I also want to pose a question, who in INDIA has not been wronged and who is not a minority in some situation or the other?
1. I felt a victim being the son of a class 4 employee in railways, felt discriminated that my dad had no connections anywhere!
2. I feel discriminated for being born in a POOR Brahman family which can be safely argued to be a minority going by Indian GOVT statistics and being forced to pay for the sins of my forefathers, while the rich Brahmin's enjoyed privileges.
3.I feel discriminated for not being cared for by the State.
So what shall i do? Will an Arundhati or a Ram Jethmalani tell me if I am wrong in not going the violent way? ;) I don't think they have any sympathy for the silent sufferers like me, the world cares more about those killed in encounters :)
Get back to the centre guys, neither the left nor right help us in anyways!
1) BJP, VHP, SIMI and all are extreme right, I condemn all religious right irrespective of which community, majority or minority, but the question is , do we have moderates any more? I don't think so, the secular (so called) are also becoming more extreme in their zeal to defend the minorities against the majorities, the perceived notions of injustice are being fanned up, some say for political gains, some say for genuine reasons, some just to espouse a cause to rally the masses, which ever way you look at, one extreme takes law into its hands, tries to damage civil society, and the other extreme tries to question the same law enforcement, doubts every action of the state, both are extreme in their own right.
2) Look at the young in India, they either want to Vote, or they don't want to, they are oblivious to any other consequence.
3) India either wants big time industrialization or it doesn't want anything to do with it, at the cost of getting stuck in poverty, its become a choice of either capitalism or socialism, there is no middle ground visible anywhere.
4) You can either smoke and get arrested, or you stop smoking, there is no space earmarked where a smoker can smoke peacefully.I mean there is no middle path as such, i hope soon the state wont dictate as to how many times one should have sex with his/spouse in a week and what positions are allowed as per Islam/Hinduism/Christianity or the IPC :)
5) Either you get reservations for ever, or you don't get any ever.
Indian civil society seriously needs to think how it is behaving, burning trains and buses, getting goons like Raj to solve labor issues, people like Mamta blocking Highways, is there an optimism left? The problem seems to be that every Indian citizen is suddenly aware of his RIGHTS but cares two hoots about his/her responsibilities. Its a false notion of protective socialist democracy that has given us this state.
I also want to pose a question, who in INDIA has not been wronged and who is not a minority in some situation or the other?
1. I felt a victim being the son of a class 4 employee in railways, felt discriminated that my dad had no connections anywhere!
2. I feel discriminated for being born in a POOR Brahman family which can be safely argued to be a minority going by Indian GOVT statistics and being forced to pay for the sins of my forefathers, while the rich Brahmin's enjoyed privileges.
3.I feel discriminated for not being cared for by the State.
So what shall i do? Will an Arundhati or a Ram Jethmalani tell me if I am wrong in not going the violent way? ;) I don't think they have any sympathy for the silent sufferers like me, the world cares more about those killed in encounters :)
Get back to the centre guys, neither the left nor right help us in anyways!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Who made the mess - Socialism or Capitalism?
I used to work in a Project for one of the biggest Thrifts in USA which was recently taken over by another big bank, a deal which was facilitated by the FDIC. After Bear Sterns, AIG, Lehman Bros, Freddie and Fannie, this bank also was consumed by some one's greed, some one's political correctness, some one's dreams may be. A lot of my friends believe this is the end of Capitalism and USA is now USSA and many of them believe days of Capitalism are over in fact they believe that Capitalism is the root cause, India survived the big punch because we never were totally capitalist.
I am sorry, I beg to differ, I believe that we lost to flawed ideas of equality and Social Justice of Politicians who are more socialist leaning, we lost to unregulated financial markets which needed more oversight, but then, the first socialist idea needed to fuel this bubble also as we would see in the points below:
Political Brownie points:
1) Didn't most Politicians advocate equal housing policies?Were they all not pitching for relaxing credit rules to extend credits to the not so well off, not so credit worthy in the name of social justice and there by extend socialism?
2) Did not most political parties pass and vote laws which enabled, people to get loans with minimum documentation?
3) Why did the regulators and there by the Governments allow Sub prime loans?ARM loans and even FHA loans?
4) Did any politician try to educate the people who took loans that when he takes a loans which is sugar coated with no Interest payments for 3 years, and then starts zooming up, there is a risk of huge default at the end of the no interest tenure?
The Truth is when the sun was shining, all political parties, be it republican or democrat, wanted to distribute Social justice at the cost of credit rules by loosening the credit worthiness process checks, other governments also followed suit, and this is pure socialism. India does it in case of Agricultural loans most of it is just wiped of the books, and the honest tax payer pays the money for this love for the farmer. It is a point that so called socialist India did a bail out for its farmers this year, the housing in India still is not a part of the great Indian dream, the Indian dream is still about Jobs, and that's what saved some grace for India, but in America, the American dream includes a house, and hence the politics has to lean to let people dream of owning a house, they all dreamt and suddenly the other Geo political factors led to people waking up in the middle of the sleep there by souring the dream.
Bottom line, this mess is more because of Socialism rather than Capitalism, at least the failures of Freddie and Fannie for sure.
The Capitalists and Profit Makers or Wall Street:
1) Did these CEO's of wall street who usually dislike socialist Ideas ever try to warn the governments of the results of such dilution of credit rules?
2) Were these fat cats ready to surrender the vast amount of sub prime customers and grow linear rather than exponentially?
3) Could they stop the urge to show these high risk credit extensions as high Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?
4) Were they able to temper the dividend payouts and follow honest business practices?
Bottom line, greed, capitalism in true sense would have actually saved the day, the problem was that, many people in wall street wanted to cater to the social justice bandwagon of politicians and fulfill the dreams (American or Indian or European) of the main street.
Is the mess due to capitalism, partly yes, capitalism does encourage risky ventures and high profits, but the case here seems to be capitalism riding on the handicap of socialism. :)
We the People :
Where do we stand, we the people , who create democracies, who vote, who dream, well we all want a house isnt it? And if someone would offer us interest waivers, deferred payments, zero interest, low monthly installments, reverse mortgages, why should we say no?
The point is how many of these sub prime owners, or ARM loan owners or Reverse Mortgage owners were forced to take these loans? Did not many of them plan for the payments? Were they not sure of their source of income in the coming years?
In India one could have escaped under the garb of illiteracy and lack of awareness, where would the people of USA and Europe take shelter?
The result is we go on in circles, Main street blames Wall Street, Wall Street Blames politics, and greed, and social justice and regulators and Iran, and Al-qaida and USSR and Chavez and Indian middle class and Chinese middle class and ....
The gist is, its a collective failure of civil society, of Governments and Regulators, of Economists, Sociologists and Wall Street, lets not just blame capitalism and free markets. Lets all take a breath, get up, clean the mess in our own little ways, and rebuild the dreams, and yes when we wake up the next time, make sure its not in the middle of the sleep, make sure its at dawn :)
I am sorry, I beg to differ, I believe that we lost to flawed ideas of equality and Social Justice of Politicians who are more socialist leaning, we lost to unregulated financial markets which needed more oversight, but then, the first socialist idea needed to fuel this bubble also as we would see in the points below:
Political Brownie points:
1) Didn't most Politicians advocate equal housing policies?Were they all not pitching for relaxing credit rules to extend credits to the not so well off, not so credit worthy in the name of social justice and there by extend socialism?
2) Did not most political parties pass and vote laws which enabled, people to get loans with minimum documentation?
3) Why did the regulators and there by the Governments allow Sub prime loans?ARM loans and even FHA loans?
4) Did any politician try to educate the people who took loans that when he takes a loans which is sugar coated with no Interest payments for 3 years, and then starts zooming up, there is a risk of huge default at the end of the no interest tenure?
The Truth is when the sun was shining, all political parties, be it republican or democrat, wanted to distribute Social justice at the cost of credit rules by loosening the credit worthiness process checks, other governments also followed suit, and this is pure socialism. India does it in case of Agricultural loans most of it is just wiped of the books, and the honest tax payer pays the money for this love for the farmer. It is a point that so called socialist India did a bail out for its farmers this year, the housing in India still is not a part of the great Indian dream, the Indian dream is still about Jobs, and that's what saved some grace for India, but in America, the American dream includes a house, and hence the politics has to lean to let people dream of owning a house, they all dreamt and suddenly the other Geo political factors led to people waking up in the middle of the sleep there by souring the dream.
Bottom line, this mess is more because of Socialism rather than Capitalism, at least the failures of Freddie and Fannie for sure.
The Capitalists and Profit Makers or Wall Street:
1) Did these CEO's of wall street who usually dislike socialist Ideas ever try to warn the governments of the results of such dilution of credit rules?
2) Were these fat cats ready to surrender the vast amount of sub prime customers and grow linear rather than exponentially?
3) Could they stop the urge to show these high risk credit extensions as high Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?
4) Were they able to temper the dividend payouts and follow honest business practices?
Bottom line, greed, capitalism in true sense would have actually saved the day, the problem was that, many people in wall street wanted to cater to the social justice bandwagon of politicians and fulfill the dreams (American or Indian or European) of the main street.
Is the mess due to capitalism, partly yes, capitalism does encourage risky ventures and high profits, but the case here seems to be capitalism riding on the handicap of socialism. :)
We the People :
Where do we stand, we the people , who create democracies, who vote, who dream, well we all want a house isnt it? And if someone would offer us interest waivers, deferred payments, zero interest, low monthly installments, reverse mortgages, why should we say no?
The point is how many of these sub prime owners, or ARM loan owners or Reverse Mortgage owners were forced to take these loans? Did not many of them plan for the payments? Were they not sure of their source of income in the coming years?
In India one could have escaped under the garb of illiteracy and lack of awareness, where would the people of USA and Europe take shelter?
The result is we go on in circles, Main street blames Wall Street, Wall Street Blames politics, and greed, and social justice and regulators and Iran, and Al-qaida and USSR and Chavez and Indian middle class and Chinese middle class and ....
The gist is, its a collective failure of civil society, of Governments and Regulators, of Economists, Sociologists and Wall Street, lets not just blame capitalism and free markets. Lets all take a breath, get up, clean the mess in our own little ways, and rebuild the dreams, and yes when we wake up the next time, make sure its not in the middle of the sleep, make sure its at dawn :)
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Save Thy Lord!!Sarva Dharma Sambhavana!
I am a Hindu, and I am secular, by secular I mean that i respect all religions, I believe all ways of prayer reach the one Almighty we all want so dearly to see us with an eye of compassion and provide us a life of bliss. I have been to Mosques,Gurudwara's and also the Church.
But recent events in India have pained me immensely, all this nonsense be it by Hindus, Muslims or Christians need to stop, we first of all need to stop killing each other, I do not understand which God, whichever you might believe would be happy to see blood spilled on the streets on his name, women raped on his name or kids butchered in the name of saving HIS teaching, following HIS preaching?
I plead to all extremists, of all flavors, be it the evangelical christians who want to spread Christianity in India and encourage conversions, the Right wing Hindu Fundamentalists like the VHP, Bajrang Dal, or the organizations like LeT, HM or the numerous extremist Muslim Organizations calling for Jehad against India, Please Please for God's Sake, whichever one you believe it, stop this anarchy and riots, stop this terror.
As I am a Hindu, I would like to clearly state to VHP and Bajrang Dal, specially that I HAVE NOT GIVEN THE RIGHT TO THEM TO DECIDE FOR ME. They do not hold the right to kill people, take law in their hands, whatever the provocation is.
Hinduism as such makes it easier for us to respect and also welcome all religious faiths in India because:
1) Hinduism no where claims that It is the ONLY true path to GOD. I agree that all the three ABRAHAMIC faiths do claim that theirs and only theirs is the best way to reach GOD.In fact Hinduism advocates "SARVA DHARMA SAMBHAVANA". All faiths are to be respected, every individual can have his her own own way to reach God.
2) Hinduism does not believe in conversions or reconversions, Religion is faith, a very personal thing, if any one follows any particular path, he or she should be allowed freely.
3) Hinduism does not have a Pope, does not go by any one BOOK, does not prescribe any fixed laws. The Law's of Lord Rama's era were different than what were applicable to Krishna's age. The Geeta prescribes different solutions to different problems. This flexibility allows us to respect DEMOCRACY, allow SECULARISM and gives a chance for us to have our own Judiciary which values human life.
4) Every Hindu has his own God, and this is an important thing, because, this and this only should be sufficient enough for us to respect and allow a space for an Allah or a Jesus in our midst, isn't it? I mean, if I can revere a Ram, Krishna, Hanuman , Lakshmi and so many other Gods and Goddesses, how does one Allah and one Jesus in my society hurt me?Can they also not be easily accommodated in this society?
It is precisely because of the above points that I believe, India and India alone has the natural ability to be secular in a true sense. India does not need anti conversion laws to save its Majority Religion of Hinduism, India doesn't need a draconian law like POTA or TADA to save its masses from Islamic Terror.
India has been attacked numerous times, ruled by kings and dictators of many faiths, but still 85% is Hindu population. Hinduism doesn't need the services of Bajrang Dal or VHP to save itself, Thank you and Keep off is what my message is to these people.
AND to the Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Sir, please, Keep off this habit of playing victim all the time, get up and fix the issues rather than kid gloving subversive activities. You need to first declare India is Dar-ul-Islam, and that Jihad against INDIA is NOT allowed.
To the Popes, Bishops and Reverends: Sir Please, keep off the lure of wealth to give a chance to mass conversions, I appreciate the good work done in the education and health sector by most of your organizations, but using such Godly acts to hideously convert Hindus as is being done by a few of the black sheep in your ranks is highly condemnable.
IF all the great religions of the world stand for compassion, love and peace, we should not have any blood shed any where, be it Kashmir, Ayodhya, Kerala, Orissa, Palestine or Jerusalem, can the true believers stand up please? AND well BE COUNTED too :)
Saturday, September 20, 2008
The INDIAN WHIRLPOOL- and the WAY OUT!
Seems like India is getting sucked in its whirlpool of religious and political contradictions. Again the same clamor for a Draconian anti Terror Law in some states, do we need these?
Do we need a law like POTA or TADA to tackle terror?
I think its the answer is not just a YES or NO. I do not subscribe to BJP's view that we just need a draconian Law to somehow get rid of Terrorism like a magic wand, and neither do i subscribe to the congress (read so called secular) view that we should not make a tougher law just because laws as such do not deter terror attacks.
We need Judicial Reforms, Police Reforms and some fine tuning of the existing laws, and if all this comes in a package in some acronym like TADA or POTA, i do not mind that.
Judicial Reforms:
1. We need to speed up justice delivery mechanisms. The common man on the street is frustrated of the delays, and the system is so outdated and slow as well as spineless that most of the times, people tend to take help from the fast track parallel justice system set up by Naxals or self styled mafiosi of a particular area.
2. Get some sort of plea bargaining thing to some of the crimes, we can not keep on filling jails which already have a poor infrastructure with pick pockets and eve teasers while we show no spine to prosecute the high flying among us.
3. what have we done to the BMW Case, the Ketan Parekh case, the fact that we couldn't convict a Sheik Omar or a Maulana Masood Azhar is testimony to the fact that the judiciary has been not up to the mark and has not shown spine when needed. We need to make sure the conviction rate goes up. Justice delayed is justice denied and we also end up paying a high moral price for the lapses.
4.Use more IT in courts and police stations, allow videoconferencing where required in sessions. There can be a whole book on these but basically bottom line is deliver justice in time without prejudice.
Police Reforms:
1. Get the police off the tentacles of the political overlords, for GODS SAKE no reform will help a set up which is used by the political class as slaves for every possible dirty clean up job possible.
2. Get a fixed tenure for these hapless police men, they may be corrupt, inefficient, bla bla, but the bottom line is they are underpaid, overused and the first line of defence, we need to get them the best equipment, increase moral standards, pay them better, have fixed duty hours.
3. Use IT again, India is a IT powerhouse, Barack Obama promises in election manifestos that he will try to keep Indian techies out, by blocking visas, USA is scared of our techies soft power, and we in India do not have a national criminal database, we don't mind if US embassy asks us to give prints if all our fingers, but balk at the idea that our own security agencies might want some form of ID to know who we are?
4. We need to urgently stop creating so called "Encounter Specialists",i again would like to stress here that i do admit that these people have been heroic, at least in the eyes of the society, but we can not go about creating Frankensteins, these people however selfless and heroic, actually represent the weakness and spinelessness of the Indian legislature, we are admitting that WE CAN NOT GET CONVICTIONS IN COURT, and hence we would resort to extra judicial killings. For God's sake, fix the system not the men.
Executive Law like POTA/TADA:
1. We do need an overhaul of existing laws, we still go by the British established system, we need to change those or fine tune, this debate shouldn't be just about an anti Terror law, it should encompass all aspects with some laws targeting terror or being applicable specifically to terror related cases.
2.We need to move form the "circumstantial evidence" way to the "forensic and technical evidence" way. We need to allow phone calls tapped, sms messages, computer disks, video recordings as evidence in court of law. We need to allow tougher remands and serum tests when we find that the probability to get evidence is slimmer.Involve more technology and allow more types of evidence is the bottom line, just circumstantial evidence is not enough always.
3.Does something called witness protection programme exist in India?If it does where is it? What kind of protection does one get? In most cases, the witness tires out or is not in a situation to remember even the chain of events by the time the case comes up for hearing. we need to sort this mess out by framing a good witness protection programme.
Only when all the above aspects are taken care of can we think of any formidable frame work to stop or at least make terrorism a costly risk for the perpetrators.
Bottom line: A single Draconian Terror Law is NO NO, a complete reform package YES!YES!
Do we need a law like POTA or TADA to tackle terror?
I think its the answer is not just a YES or NO. I do not subscribe to BJP's view that we just need a draconian Law to somehow get rid of Terrorism like a magic wand, and neither do i subscribe to the congress (read so called secular) view that we should not make a tougher law just because laws as such do not deter terror attacks.
We need Judicial Reforms, Police Reforms and some fine tuning of the existing laws, and if all this comes in a package in some acronym like TADA or POTA, i do not mind that.
Judicial Reforms:
1. We need to speed up justice delivery mechanisms. The common man on the street is frustrated of the delays, and the system is so outdated and slow as well as spineless that most of the times, people tend to take help from the fast track parallel justice system set up by Naxals or self styled mafiosi of a particular area.
2. Get some sort of plea bargaining thing to some of the crimes, we can not keep on filling jails which already have a poor infrastructure with pick pockets and eve teasers while we show no spine to prosecute the high flying among us.
3. what have we done to the BMW Case, the Ketan Parekh case, the fact that we couldn't convict a Sheik Omar or a Maulana Masood Azhar is testimony to the fact that the judiciary has been not up to the mark and has not shown spine when needed. We need to make sure the conviction rate goes up. Justice delayed is justice denied and we also end up paying a high moral price for the lapses.
4.Use more IT in courts and police stations, allow videoconferencing where required in sessions. There can be a whole book on these but basically bottom line is deliver justice in time without prejudice.
Police Reforms:
1. Get the police off the tentacles of the political overlords, for GODS SAKE no reform will help a set up which is used by the political class as slaves for every possible dirty clean up job possible.
2. Get a fixed tenure for these hapless police men, they may be corrupt, inefficient, bla bla, but the bottom line is they are underpaid, overused and the first line of defence, we need to get them the best equipment, increase moral standards, pay them better, have fixed duty hours.
3. Use IT again, India is a IT powerhouse, Barack Obama promises in election manifestos that he will try to keep Indian techies out, by blocking visas, USA is scared of our techies soft power, and we in India do not have a national criminal database, we don't mind if US embassy asks us to give prints if all our fingers, but balk at the idea that our own security agencies might want some form of ID to know who we are?
4. We need to urgently stop creating so called "Encounter Specialists",i again would like to stress here that i do admit that these people have been heroic, at least in the eyes of the society, but we can not go about creating Frankensteins, these people however selfless and heroic, actually represent the weakness and spinelessness of the Indian legislature, we are admitting that WE CAN NOT GET CONVICTIONS IN COURT, and hence we would resort to extra judicial killings. For God's sake, fix the system not the men.
Executive Law like POTA/TADA:
1. We do need an overhaul of existing laws, we still go by the British established system, we need to change those or fine tune, this debate shouldn't be just about an anti Terror law, it should encompass all aspects with some laws targeting terror or being applicable specifically to terror related cases.
2.We need to move form the "circumstantial evidence" way to the "forensic and technical evidence" way. We need to allow phone calls tapped, sms messages, computer disks, video recordings as evidence in court of law. We need to allow tougher remands and serum tests when we find that the probability to get evidence is slimmer.Involve more technology and allow more types of evidence is the bottom line, just circumstantial evidence is not enough always.
3.Does something called witness protection programme exist in India?If it does where is it? What kind of protection does one get? In most cases, the witness tires out or is not in a situation to remember even the chain of events by the time the case comes up for hearing. we need to sort this mess out by framing a good witness protection programme.
Only when all the above aspects are taken care of can we think of any formidable frame work to stop or at least make terrorism a costly risk for the perpetrators.
Bottom line: A single Draconian Terror Law is NO NO, a complete reform package YES!YES!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
JInhe Naaz hi Hind Par kaha hi!
Another Sahir Gem....and self explanatory in the current circumstances in India:
Ye kooche ye neelam ghar dilkashi ke
Ye loote huwe caravan zindagi ke
Kahan hai, kahan hai, muhafiz khudi ke
Jinhe naaz hai hindpar vo kahan hai
Kahan hai, Kahan hai, Kahan hai…
Ye purpech galiyan, ye badnaam bazaar
Ye gumnaam raahi, ye sikkhon ki jhankaar
Ye ismat ke saude, ye sanso ki taqraar
Jinhe naaz hai….
Ye sadiyonse be-khauf sehami si galiyaan
Ye maslee huwi adh-khilee zard kaliyaan
Ye bikati huwi khokhali rang-raliyaan
Jinhe naaz hai….
Vo ujale dareechon me payal ki chhan chhan
Thaki haari sanson pe table ki dhandhan
Ye be-ruuh kamaron me khansi ki than-than
Jinhe naaz hai….
Ye phoolon ke gajare, ye peekon ke cheente
Ye be-baak nazren, ye gustakh fiqare
Ye dhal ke badan aur ye beemar chehare
Jinhe naaz hai….
Yahaan peer bhi aa chuke hain jawaan bhi
Tanuumand bete bhi, abbaa miyan bhi
Ye biwi bhi hai aur behn bhi hai maa bhi
Jinhe naaz hai….
Madad chahati hai ye hawwa ki beti
Yashoda ki ham-jins, radha ki beti
Payambar ki ummat zulai khan ki beti
Jinhe naaz hai….
Zaraa mulk ke raahbaronko bulalvo
Ye kuche ye galiyan ye manzhar dikhavo
Jinhe naaz hai hindpar unko lavo
Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan hai
Kahan hai, kahan hai, kahan hai
Urdu Glossary:
Kooche : Streets
Neelam ghar : Houses of auction
Muhafiz khudi ke : Protectors of pride
Ismat : Honour or pride
Zard : Becoming yellow
Takraar : Complaint or argument
Sehami Si Galiyaan : Frightened Streets
Be-ruuh : Without soul
Tanuumand : Healthy
Ham-jins : Breed
Payambar :Prophet
Ummat : race
Raahbaron : Leaders
Naaz : Pride
Khokhali : Empty
Rang-Raliyaan : Razzle Dazzle
Saturday, August 23, 2008
India's Solutions - More Anarchy
In India:
1) What do you do when your caste community wants more slice of reservations/Quotas?
2) What do you do if your daughter elopes with "their" son?
3) What do you do in case you don't want industry to come up because of some stupid environment issues, land issues, political issues, or just because you are bored and want to have some fun like kids have breaking toys?
4) What do you do in case you perceive some one's art or book to be offensive?
5) What do you do when you don't get electricity? forget that you wont allow create dams, wont allow coal based projects, wont allow nuclear deals and plants, and still want everything cheap? what do you do to just vent frustration?
6) what do you do in case your Govt Job is recommended to be privatized because your productivity is negative? Forget that your son is stealing jobs from USA which you are proud of!
All the above and many more such issues have only one Solution in India:
Mobilize masses and burn public property, self immolate and sacrifice a couple of lives, get life to a stand still, obstruct highways. The Govt budges instantly.Create more anarchy, destroy and kill people, inconvenience them, do bandhs, hartals everyday, squat on railway lines and stop trains......
AND WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU ARE FRUSTRATED WITH SUCH MOB CULTURE?
YOU SIT AND WRITE A BLOG LIKE THIS :):)
well it is harmless and peaceful to say the least:P
A friend accused me that i can only complain...not do anything and be a cry baby...whats my contribution to India? Answer is : My contribution is that, I am not on the street vandalizing, I am protesting through my words, and doing it peacefully, unlike the anarchists out there, am not hurting others, even though am displeased and frustrated. That is my biggest contribution.
AND WELL, HE BETTER BE GRATEFUL TO ME THAT I CHOSE THIS WAY RATHER THAN THE OTHER :):):)
1) What do you do when your caste community wants more slice of reservations/Quotas?
2) What do you do if your daughter elopes with "their" son?
3) What do you do in case you don't want industry to come up because of some stupid environment issues, land issues, political issues, or just because you are bored and want to have some fun like kids have breaking toys?
4) What do you do in case you perceive some one's art or book to be offensive?
5) What do you do when you don't get electricity? forget that you wont allow create dams, wont allow coal based projects, wont allow nuclear deals and plants, and still want everything cheap? what do you do to just vent frustration?
6) what do you do in case your Govt Job is recommended to be privatized because your productivity is negative? Forget that your son is stealing jobs from USA which you are proud of!
All the above and many more such issues have only one Solution in India:
Mobilize masses and burn public property, self immolate and sacrifice a couple of lives, get life to a stand still, obstruct highways. The Govt budges instantly.Create more anarchy, destroy and kill people, inconvenience them, do bandhs, hartals everyday, squat on railway lines and stop trains......
AND WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU ARE FRUSTRATED WITH SUCH MOB CULTURE?
YOU SIT AND WRITE A BLOG LIKE THIS :):)
well it is harmless and peaceful to say the least:P
A friend accused me that i can only complain...not do anything and be a cry baby...whats my contribution to India? Answer is : My contribution is that, I am not on the street vandalizing, I am protesting through my words, and doing it peacefully, unlike the anarchists out there, am not hurting others, even though am displeased and frustrated. That is my biggest contribution.
AND WELL, HE BETTER BE GRATEFUL TO ME THAT I CHOSE THIS WAY RATHER THAN THE OTHER :):):)
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Let the People of Kashmir Decide!
I have been following Kashmir for the last two weeks, well, the region has seen India and Pakistan fight almost four wars, is constantly on the boil, international think tanks feel this is the most plausible region for a nuclear war.
But what about India?What should India do now, its been 60 Yrs, we used force, pampered Kashmir, faced the issue of ethnic cleansing of Pundits form the Valley, Rigged Elections, put down fire with fire, tolerated scoundrels and rouges for politicians and ministers, begged secularism, what more should we do?
Every Indian is taught in school that Kashmir is a special state, having its own constitution, which acceded to India in 1947, no law passed by New Delhi's parliament holds validity in the valley unless the Kashmir Assembly also approves it but still is an integral part of India. In short, effectively, except for Defense,communication and foreign policy, New Delhi doesn't have a right to decide anything else, and this already makes J&K the most autonomous state in the Indian union. Of course, I would agree that I don't belong to J&K, and hence, i would not go into the nitty gritty of human right violations, perceived injustices etc. Every Indian at some point of time in his life, in some situation does feel he is a minority and his rights have been violated. :)
OK, so far so good, so whats the problem here, the gist seems to me like this, Pakistan has Azad Kashmir( we call it POK), China has a small part of Kashmir, but well neither India, nor Pakistan, nor the Kashmiris talk about it, apart form this India has the Valley, Jammu and Ladakh. Now Jammu and Ladakh are more are less interested to be within the Indian union, there is no dissent there. Jammu is Hindu majority and Laddakh is Buddhist, India has never asked its minorities to leave, they choose the last time we divided the Subcontinent, so if we come to that unfortunate choice again, I strongly believe we should welcome those who respect the ethos of Indian state and stay back.
So lets now assume we want to address the Valley's demand for a plebiscite, so then that's tantamount to accepting the UN resolution.
If we choose to allow Kashmir ( whole of it, including POK) to vote, they would have the below three choices:
1) They merge with Pakistan
2) They stay with India
3) They become Independent country.
Before the vote, as per the UN resolution we need the below:
1) Pakistan removes all its forces from POK, even paramilitary and police forces. Can Pakistan do this? I would think NOT. but well for the sake of argument lets assume that's done.
2) India takes control of the whole region, and maintains minimum police force to maintain law and order, this also seems implausible but well OK, may be this is done.
3) What about the demographics? The UN resolution mandated that the population demographic shouldn't change, India did not allow any Indian to buy any piece of Land in Kashmir, or migrate and settle there, did Pakistan follow this? I think POK is altered demographically with Punjabi migrants.
So basically, its not possible to carry out the UN resolution as it was thought out at that point of time as the points 1 and 3 make its not enforceable.
In spite of this, i want to stress the fact that, India being the proud democracy it is, should allow the people of the valley to get what they want, let them choose, if a tragically unstable Pakistan is attractive to them, let them go, anyways only the valley would go, Jammu and Laddakh would still remain.
I don't think Kashmir can remain independent for even 15 days, even if India doesn't annex it, Pakistan or china would, and how can Kashmir protect itself, it would need one of the three countries, India china or Pakistan to take care of its defence, India does precisely that now, but Kashmiris are not happy, so yea let them choose which daemon they want to handle. I think, even if one thinks of India as an enemy, its always a softer enemy to fight, china is too ruthless, and Pakistan well, we know what it has been in 60 yrs.
Kashmir is not the poorest state in India, we pump a lot of money in the form of grants, Kashmir has an opportunity to take part in India's high growth rate and move towards a brighter 21st century, take advantages of India's democracy and secularism, however faulty they are, they are precious. I believe, we have done enough, there is no point in becoming prisoners of romantic history, we should let Kashmiris decide what they want and finish off this whole story of violence and blackmail from either side. Its draining off India in all possible ways.
Cross border trade is welcome, so is making boundaries irrelevant, but not at the cost of Kashmiris hurling abuses at India, comparing India to the British for occupying as Imperialists, and ridiculing India's democracy and Secularism. India can move on without Kashmir, let us allow the daughter marry the man she likes, how ever bad the choice is, its time to grow up for us too.
Best of luck to Kashmir, they have finally succeeded in spraining the intellectual patience of India, they might get "Azadi" but "Nijame Mustafa" ain't Kashmiriyat. :(
But what about India?What should India do now, its been 60 Yrs, we used force, pampered Kashmir, faced the issue of ethnic cleansing of Pundits form the Valley, Rigged Elections, put down fire with fire, tolerated scoundrels and rouges for politicians and ministers, begged secularism, what more should we do?
Every Indian is taught in school that Kashmir is a special state, having its own constitution, which acceded to India in 1947, no law passed by New Delhi's parliament holds validity in the valley unless the Kashmir Assembly also approves it but still is an integral part of India. In short, effectively, except for Defense,communication and foreign policy, New Delhi doesn't have a right to decide anything else, and this already makes J&K the most autonomous state in the Indian union. Of course, I would agree that I don't belong to J&K, and hence, i would not go into the nitty gritty of human right violations, perceived injustices etc. Every Indian at some point of time in his life, in some situation does feel he is a minority and his rights have been violated. :)
OK, so far so good, so whats the problem here, the gist seems to me like this, Pakistan has Azad Kashmir( we call it POK), China has a small part of Kashmir, but well neither India, nor Pakistan, nor the Kashmiris talk about it, apart form this India has the Valley, Jammu and Ladakh. Now Jammu and Ladakh are more are less interested to be within the Indian union, there is no dissent there. Jammu is Hindu majority and Laddakh is Buddhist, India has never asked its minorities to leave, they choose the last time we divided the Subcontinent, so if we come to that unfortunate choice again, I strongly believe we should welcome those who respect the ethos of Indian state and stay back.
So lets now assume we want to address the Valley's demand for a plebiscite, so then that's tantamount to accepting the UN resolution.
If we choose to allow Kashmir ( whole of it, including POK) to vote, they would have the below three choices:
1) They merge with Pakistan
2) They stay with India
3) They become Independent country.
Before the vote, as per the UN resolution we need the below:
1) Pakistan removes all its forces from POK, even paramilitary and police forces. Can Pakistan do this? I would think NOT. but well for the sake of argument lets assume that's done.
2) India takes control of the whole region, and maintains minimum police force to maintain law and order, this also seems implausible but well OK, may be this is done.
3) What about the demographics? The UN resolution mandated that the population demographic shouldn't change, India did not allow any Indian to buy any piece of Land in Kashmir, or migrate and settle there, did Pakistan follow this? I think POK is altered demographically with Punjabi migrants.
So basically, its not possible to carry out the UN resolution as it was thought out at that point of time as the points 1 and 3 make its not enforceable.
In spite of this, i want to stress the fact that, India being the proud democracy it is, should allow the people of the valley to get what they want, let them choose, if a tragically unstable Pakistan is attractive to them, let them go, anyways only the valley would go, Jammu and Laddakh would still remain.
I don't think Kashmir can remain independent for even 15 days, even if India doesn't annex it, Pakistan or china would, and how can Kashmir protect itself, it would need one of the three countries, India china or Pakistan to take care of its defence, India does precisely that now, but Kashmiris are not happy, so yea let them choose which daemon they want to handle. I think, even if one thinks of India as an enemy, its always a softer enemy to fight, china is too ruthless, and Pakistan well, we know what it has been in 60 yrs.
Kashmir is not the poorest state in India, we pump a lot of money in the form of grants, Kashmir has an opportunity to take part in India's high growth rate and move towards a brighter 21st century, take advantages of India's democracy and secularism, however faulty they are, they are precious. I believe, we have done enough, there is no point in becoming prisoners of romantic history, we should let Kashmiris decide what they want and finish off this whole story of violence and blackmail from either side. Its draining off India in all possible ways.
Cross border trade is welcome, so is making boundaries irrelevant, but not at the cost of Kashmiris hurling abuses at India, comparing India to the British for occupying as Imperialists, and ridiculing India's democracy and Secularism. India can move on without Kashmir, let us allow the daughter marry the man she likes, how ever bad the choice is, its time to grow up for us too.
Best of luck to Kashmir, they have finally succeeded in spraining the intellectual patience of India, they might get "Azadi" but "Nijame Mustafa" ain't Kashmiriyat. :(
Sunday, August 3, 2008
An unending Saga of a soft State and its insensitive masses!
6:30 PM IST (Tuesday or Friday of some xx month) : Bombs rip off on streets, some times cylinders, tiffin boxes,cars,bicycles umm...anything and everything literally.
7:00 PM: Emails received from some unknown groups by most TV channels and even the IB, they guys dare to threaten and challenge the highest crucible of India's intelligence also.
7:30 PM: Chief Ministers of States affected say " This is a grave moment of despair, please maintain communal harmony, we would defeat those terrorists, its a war against India"
7:45 PM: Home Minister reads out his usual speech, "we condemn these dastardly acts of terrorism, the foriegn hand is responsible, no prior intelligence".
8:00 pm: BJP accuses UPA of repealing POTA. UPA asks BJP rules states why they dont use existing laws effectively? More mudslinging but all parties agree we need a central force, but as to who would bell the cat, no answers :)
9:00 PM: USA, UK, France, Germany...and of course PAKISTAN, offer condolences, condemn attack, praise India for its RESTRAINT and predictably go to sleep.
Most indians also go to sleep, well, how much can you bear the same news month after month, day after day, you become hostage to a situation. I think slowly INDIA would be afflcited by the STOCKHOLM SYNDROME and may be start to sympathize with JIHADIS/NAXALS or whoever causes mayhem and death, may be its KARMA well you can expect even this statement of KARMA in India , may be the GRAHAS or planetary positions, may be POLITICAL DECEIT, whatever it is INDIA can not act, its impotent, docile and has lost its ability to react, it probably expects that it will be raped repeatedly.
I am a rationalist, I dont really support the use of excessive force, but lately, the NGO's and HUMAN RIGHTS guys in india have lost my support.I think HUMAN rights are for humans not for terrorists who have given up humanity. So i would plead with the HUMAN RIGHTS organizations to also raise their voice for the security personell and the innocent civillians also who are killed by the terrorists in a more sonorous way.
Why do we need Death Squads, Grey hound squads, encounter specialists etc? We need them because of an impotent and highly incompetent judiciary. We kept Mohd. Azhar and Sheikh Omar for 5 yrs in prison, but we were not good enough to prosecute them, and see what the result is now? We need the mumbai ATS because, with MACOCA or POTA or without them, we have not been able to handle organized crime. We have the laws, but no will, no urgency, no seriousness to tackle this menance. They have become a part of our life, as if we accept them to rape us once in a while. The whole set up is corrupt, the Traffic cops, the RTO who gives licences, the MRO who gives ration cards,the Passport officer, post office guy ..who is left untouched? All of us are responsible for this mayhem, why blame just the security apparatus? We don't stand in Q, we don't like discipline, we blame it on the dense population, impatience, poverty what not, but the point is we don't have the will to stop it,may be we crave attention and if a bomb can do it so be it :(
India lost the most number of lives in the world this current year to terror, next only to Iraq, but hey....Iraq is a WAR ZONE, India is at peace...or so I thought...
RVG was right in his latest movie " YOU MAY CHOOSE TO IGNORE TERRORISM, TERRORISM WILL NOT IGNORE YOU"
7:00 PM: Emails received from some unknown groups by most TV channels and even the IB, they guys dare to threaten and challenge the highest crucible of India's intelligence also.
7:30 PM: Chief Ministers of States affected say " This is a grave moment of despair, please maintain communal harmony, we would defeat those terrorists, its a war against India"
7:45 PM: Home Minister reads out his usual speech, "we condemn these dastardly acts of terrorism, the foriegn hand is responsible, no prior intelligence".
8:00 pm: BJP accuses UPA of repealing POTA. UPA asks BJP rules states why they dont use existing laws effectively? More mudslinging but all parties agree we need a central force, but as to who would bell the cat, no answers :)
9:00 PM: USA, UK, France, Germany...and of course PAKISTAN, offer condolences, condemn attack, praise India for its RESTRAINT and predictably go to sleep.
Most indians also go to sleep, well, how much can you bear the same news month after month, day after day, you become hostage to a situation. I think slowly INDIA would be afflcited by the STOCKHOLM SYNDROME and may be start to sympathize with JIHADIS/NAXALS or whoever causes mayhem and death, may be its KARMA well you can expect even this statement of KARMA in India , may be the GRAHAS or planetary positions, may be POLITICAL DECEIT, whatever it is INDIA can not act, its impotent, docile and has lost its ability to react, it probably expects that it will be raped repeatedly.
I am a rationalist, I dont really support the use of excessive force, but lately, the NGO's and HUMAN RIGHTS guys in india have lost my support.I think HUMAN rights are for humans not for terrorists who have given up humanity. So i would plead with the HUMAN RIGHTS organizations to also raise their voice for the security personell and the innocent civillians also who are killed by the terrorists in a more sonorous way.
Why do we need Death Squads, Grey hound squads, encounter specialists etc? We need them because of an impotent and highly incompetent judiciary. We kept Mohd. Azhar and Sheikh Omar for 5 yrs in prison, but we were not good enough to prosecute them, and see what the result is now? We need the mumbai ATS because, with MACOCA or POTA or without them, we have not been able to handle organized crime. We have the laws, but no will, no urgency, no seriousness to tackle this menance. They have become a part of our life, as if we accept them to rape us once in a while. The whole set up is corrupt, the Traffic cops, the RTO who gives licences, the MRO who gives ration cards,the Passport officer, post office guy ..who is left untouched? All of us are responsible for this mayhem, why blame just the security apparatus? We don't stand in Q, we don't like discipline, we blame it on the dense population, impatience, poverty what not, but the point is we don't have the will to stop it,may be we crave attention and if a bomb can do it so be it :(
India lost the most number of lives in the world this current year to terror, next only to Iraq, but hey....Iraq is a WAR ZONE, India is at peace...or so I thought...
RVG was right in his latest movie " YOU MAY CHOOSE TO IGNORE TERRORISM, TERRORISM WILL NOT IGNORE YOU"
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Chahe Yeh Mano ..CHahe Woh Mano
I heard a nice Qawali from the movie DHARAMPUTRA (1961), I think this rendition should be made available to all our fellow Indians in the state of Jammu and Kashmir so that they could remember Kashmiriyat which is stabbed badly after the recent events in the state.
I pay my tribute to the great poet Sahir Ludhyianvi who in 1961 was mature and forward looking to give right words to secularism. In todays india where we cant solve simple issues related to religion and accuse each other of secularism, psedo-secularism, atheism and what not, i think his words are immortal. We should be ashamed of the fact that we have become a regressive society.
The song by Sahir is as below:( link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p5KiazJH9c)
Kabe mein raho ya kashi mein..
nisbat to usiki daat se hi..
tum Ram kaho ke Rahim kaho..
matlab to usiki baat se hai..
yeh Masjid hi woh Butkhana
chahe ye mano chahe woh mano
bhai maqsad to hi Dil to samjhana
chahe ye mano chahe woh mano
yeh shaikho bhraman ke jhagde
sab nasamjhi ki baatein hi
humne to hi bas itna jaana
chahe ye mano chahe woh mano
agar jasbe mohabbat sabiq ho
har dar se murade milti hi
mandir se murade milti
masjid se murade milti hi
kashi se murade milti hi kaabe se murade milti hai
har ghar hai usika kashana
chahe yeh mano chahe woh mano
A tribute to secularism in INDIA and poetry of Sahir....
I pay my tribute to the great poet Sahir Ludhyianvi who in 1961 was mature and forward looking to give right words to secularism. In todays india where we cant solve simple issues related to religion and accuse each other of secularism, psedo-secularism, atheism and what not, i think his words are immortal. We should be ashamed of the fact that we have become a regressive society.
The song by Sahir is as below:( link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p5KiazJH9c)
Kabe mein raho ya kashi mein..
nisbat to usiki daat se hi..
tum Ram kaho ke Rahim kaho..
matlab to usiki baat se hai..
yeh Masjid hi woh Butkhana
chahe ye mano chahe woh mano
bhai maqsad to hi Dil to samjhana
chahe ye mano chahe woh mano
yeh shaikho bhraman ke jhagde
sab nasamjhi ki baatein hi
humne to hi bas itna jaana
chahe ye mano chahe woh mano
agar jasbe mohabbat sabiq ho
har dar se murade milti hi
mandir se murade milti
masjid se murade milti hi
kashi se murade milti hi kaabe se murade milti hai
har ghar hai usika kashana
chahe yeh mano chahe woh mano
A tribute to secularism in INDIA and poetry of Sahir....
Saturday, July 12, 2008
A Tribue to the Great Field Marshall and a legacy - The Indian Army
I have been trying to pen my thoughts on the Indian Army and offer my tributes to the Late Field Marshall Manekshaw who passed away recently. India lost a real Hero, and thankfully we didnt have riots like we have when a famous south Indian film start passed away, Sam Bahadur sure wouldn't have liked it and I really don't mind if people of India and its elite dignatories didnt get time to attend his state funeral as reported by newspapers, atleast thankfully they didnt disrespect him by rioting :) But well he was no Film Star...he was a REAL HERO.
So much for the people, but Sam was extraordinary, he liberated Bangladesh, had 93000 strong Pakistani Army surrender in Dhaka, walked up almost to Karachi and still, pulled back when his Primeminister wanted. Thats valour, thats courage, to leave all you have gained without a wince, to be apolitical and not let your ego overtake you. I respect Sam Bahadur for that, and I think India is indebted to him for creating such a legacy with the armed forces.
I am proud of the Indian Army, not because it has won 4 wars against Pakistan, not because it is the world's second largest Army but solely for the fact that it has remained largely apolitical. In Asia, with most countries which have been at a similar time and sense as India, Army has always taken over while a country was growing up, experimenting with democracy and values. Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, Srilanka, China, Bangladesh, Malaysia all i think have bouts of coups and Millirary dominated rules more or less. But the Indian Army has stood out for its professionalism. Inspite of the morass of Indian politics, the largely currupt and inept political class, the various stages if instability, emergency, war, riots, kashmir and other host of issues, the INDIAN ARMY thankfully has always been apolitical. It has done its job fairly, without any bias at any stage. I think as an institution its is probably still the most respected in India.
And if the Indian army has shown such restraint and patience with the politicians, allowed democracy to nurture, grow and supported the teenage pranks of indian politcial class, it owes it to people like Sam,Sundarji and Thimmiah. We as a nation we owe these Soldiers a lot.
I bet Sam must have felt bad, when the myopic Indian political establishment took a toll on his best Soldier during the Operation Blue Star and Indian Army had to kill had to kill its best soldier , the one India awarded "PVSM" for his valiant efforts in the Bangladesh war. Thats the tragedy of India, and whenever some of friends who are frusrtated with the dirty politics in india say we need a Military Rule, I tell them, We are lucky ....Our Army never even thinks of taking over.....if it can show restraint, ask its men to take bullets till the enemy has run out of bullets in Kargil, If it can see its politcians selling thier morals to scam and make profits for coffins bought for the countries Martyrs and still is professional.....we should take a leaf...show restraint, salute them, and thank God for giving India such a professional and Disciplined force.
I salute Sam Bahadur for his bravery, for his legacy, for his love for India.
So much for the people, but Sam was extraordinary, he liberated Bangladesh, had 93000 strong Pakistani Army surrender in Dhaka, walked up almost to Karachi and still, pulled back when his Primeminister wanted. Thats valour, thats courage, to leave all you have gained without a wince, to be apolitical and not let your ego overtake you. I respect Sam Bahadur for that, and I think India is indebted to him for creating such a legacy with the armed forces.
I am proud of the Indian Army, not because it has won 4 wars against Pakistan, not because it is the world's second largest Army but solely for the fact that it has remained largely apolitical. In Asia, with most countries which have been at a similar time and sense as India, Army has always taken over while a country was growing up, experimenting with democracy and values. Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, Srilanka, China, Bangladesh, Malaysia all i think have bouts of coups and Millirary dominated rules more or less. But the Indian Army has stood out for its professionalism. Inspite of the morass of Indian politics, the largely currupt and inept political class, the various stages if instability, emergency, war, riots, kashmir and other host of issues, the INDIAN ARMY thankfully has always been apolitical. It has done its job fairly, without any bias at any stage. I think as an institution its is probably still the most respected in India.
And if the Indian army has shown such restraint and patience with the politicians, allowed democracy to nurture, grow and supported the teenage pranks of indian politcial class, it owes it to people like Sam,Sundarji and Thimmiah. We as a nation we owe these Soldiers a lot.
I bet Sam must have felt bad, when the myopic Indian political establishment took a toll on his best Soldier during the Operation Blue Star and Indian Army had to kill had to kill its best soldier , the one India awarded "PVSM" for his valiant efforts in the Bangladesh war. Thats the tragedy of India, and whenever some of friends who are frusrtated with the dirty politics in india say we need a Military Rule, I tell them, We are lucky ....Our Army never even thinks of taking over.....if it can show restraint, ask its men to take bullets till the enemy has run out of bullets in Kargil, If it can see its politcians selling thier morals to scam and make profits for coffins bought for the countries Martyrs and still is professional.....we should take a leaf...show restraint, salute them, and thank God for giving India such a professional and Disciplined force.
I salute Sam Bahadur for his bravery, for his legacy, for his love for India.
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