Monday, October 30, 2006

Hanging him makes me stronger and satisfied

Afzal Guru must be hanged. Rather some one must be hanged. If it were possible we would have hanged Pervez Musharraf or Nawaz shariff or Shoaib Akhtar. Or the entire Pakistani Nation. Alas we are not America! We can't bomb Islamabad. So we should do what most we can do. So we must hang Afzal. We must hang him for the sake of those who laid down their precious lives defending our parliament. We must hang him to tell 'them' that we don't 'wear bangles in our hands'. We must hang him as a tribute to the Supreme court which has made great efforts to satiate the collective conscience of the country.
How does it matter if we really couldn't identify the 5 who was shot down in their bid to attack the parliament? Or we based the case on the confession of a single person (read Afzal) that was rejected by the courts. Actually, we don't need to listen to Afzal's side of the story. Why should we listen to a terrorist? How does it matter if he was a terrorist who had surrendered with the BSF in 1993? Or he has something to say about the STF (Special Task Force) of the J&K police that was never ordered to be investigated? Or there were numerous loopholes and frailties in the investigation of the heinous crime? Or he did not have lawyers to defend him, rather had an amicus appointed by the court?
We have full faith in our judiciary that appreciates the collective conscience of its people. So Afzal must be hanged to fulfill the vengence of the nation.
That is how we become the largest democray in the world.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

The Circle of Profit

In our state, West Bengal, we celebrate the festival of Durga Puja every year in autumn. On one hand though it is a time to enjoy for most, there are people who look forward to these few days for their annual sustenance.

And, there are people, pretty rich, who wait for a war to end so that they can get into the reconstrction business. And, they are everywhere. US, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain......everyone will have his share of pie.

So, the game is pretty simple.


The Algorithm:

1. Fix a target (preferably a mid-east or a south asian one)
2. Have a period (modifiable according to need) of negotiations in counts that are politically
unacceptable to the government of that country
2.a Involve UN, but veto whenever it goes 'astray'
3. Fabricate 'compelling evidences'
4. Invade (using billion $ worth of arms and ammunitions)
5. Provide billion $ aid (charge interest for that ?) to do reconstruction work (deals to go to the
sponsors of course)



Succesful Cases:

Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon



Coming up:

Iran, North Korea, Venezuela

Monday, August 21, 2006

Terrorism.....my take

I am with terrorism
If it is able to free a people
From tyrants and tyranny
If it is able to save man from the cruelty of man
To return the lemon, the olive tree,
And the bird to the South of Lebanon
And the smile back to Golan

---I’m With Terrorism, Nizar Qabbani, April 15, 1997.

As thousands trudge their way back to the rubbles they once called ‘home’ and the sky is no more littered with the bomber jets, the difference is hardly appreciated. The difference between ‘defenders’ and ‘aggressors’; between ‘terrorism’ and ‘freedom struggle’.

History has its own milestones. Milestones that change vision. Milestones that blur vision. September 11, 2001 re-defined terrorism. Suddenly, ‘Terrorism’ became a homogenous, all pervasive phenomenon that can describe any violent (or even non-violent!) struggle of a people against some established authority. And more remarkably, it’s so simple to qualify for a terrorist tag, just be a black sheep in Uncle Sam’s global village!

Let’s come to the point. As the Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary puts it, terrorism is ‘the use of violent action in order to achieve political aims or to force a government to act’. So, I believe the history of every colonized country that sought freedom from the clutches of its masters must be drenched with the blood of thousands of terrorists! Can you contend the fact that Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, and all the martyrs of our freedom struggle had used violent action in order to achieve political aims (freedom) or to force a government (British) to act (give up the rule over India)? In today’s free India, I hope you will think twice before you use this dirty word to describe these great heroes.

Actually, almost always, what you say depends heavily on where you stand. If you were a British in the early 20th Century India, you would have called Bhagat Singh a terrorist. If you were a gentle Arab fellaheen living in today’s Palestine, you would have revered an unnamed Hamas suicide bomber as a martyr.

Though the history of human civilization is reddened with wars and conflicts, it can’t be denied the quintessential spirit of mankind stands for peace, progress and prosperity. And almost all the giant leaps in the sphere of art, culture, science, industry and philosophy have been attained in peace, rather than in war. The trouble arises when one group or individual starts dominating another, reducing the latter to a mere source of prosperity for the former; subjugating them in all respects, exploiting their natural resources, crippling their economy, ransacking their political structure, humiliating their cultural values, and above all, hurting their dignity as human beings. That can happen when one country invades or colonizes another; that can happen when a section of the people is exploited and neglected such blatantly that it can hardly recognize the rest as its brethren.
When you must snatch what you have been deprived of, what you look upon as your right, you fight and you revolt. And when the might of your subjugator tries to crush you, you pounce back the way you can make him feel the heat- plant bombs in your ruler’s office, assassinate them in their morning walks. From guerilla warfare to ‘Terrorism’, this is what has happened every where. This is what is happening everywhere.

So, who decides what’s right and what’s wrong? Who decides what’s democracy and what’s tyranny? What’s freedom struggle and what’s terrorism? Every reasonable man knows the answer. From the utterly undemocratic UN to the leech-like World Bank, it’s the US hegemony that decides which government should survive and which one should go. When Saddam should rise and when should he be felled. When Taliban should befriended and when should they be bombed. With the ministers marching left and right, our emperor is always active in his mission to establish lasting ‘peace’ in this planet. The arms he needs to sell are just necessary evils!

There is nothing strange with an Imperialist force or a Zionist country doing what it’s meant to do. What concerns us and needs to be prevented in the recent zeal to emulate the Israel model. Forgetting the fact that today every nook and corner of Israel lives in a threat that is the fruit of the tree sown by its own rulers; there are many calling for bombing across POK. The roots of terrorism go deeper than any bunker-blaster can reach. It thrives on neglect, exploitation and hatred. From Nagaland to Mizoram, it’s the
story of utter disregard of the Indian state for the culture, economy and dignity of the people of the region. In the forests of Dandakaranya or the hills of Chikmagalur, it’s the people taking up arms against the exploitative landlords, money-lenders - the de-facto state. When has the true voice of the Kashmir valley ever been heard? In this age of Global war on terror, we tend to forget the local reasons for a boy of 14 to take up arms. The riots that are planned to purge communities. The discriminations (both active and passive) that result in impoverishment of a section. The progress, the modernization that a community was never made to see.

There are people who benefit from terror. And from the war on terror. There are fanatics like Laden and his Al-Qaeda linchpins who take this as holy Jihad. And they mix it up all with the freedom fighters of Palestine, the devastated people of Afghanistan, the bleeding Iraqis.

The poverty of Bangladesh, the abysmal state of education and progress of Muslims in India and other developing or under-developed countries is the actual bomb that needs to be defused.

You can bomb a generation. Butcher it. But how can you avoid the wrath of the next? Israel can not. Will it now be India’s turn? The decision is for you to take.

Monday, May 01, 2006

the reservation in our psychee

as i was rambling thru a blog on the recent OBC reservation move http://bsubra.blogspot.com/2006/04/students-slam-obc-reservation-proposal.html#comments
and reading the forty-seven odd comments on this blog, a strange feeling crept in me. is it not that the SC/ST/OBC populations make up more than 70% of India's staggering 1030 million? then how come there is not a single post that defends the 'new' reservation move? is it because except for the vote-bank politicians, every-one, including the ones for whom the reservation is meant for, feel that reservation is bad, it's bad for India's growth, economy, everything? or is it because blogging is a thing that doesn't really fit into the daily-life of these people?

it's merit versus quota, isn't it dude? but who will define merit? even before you come to that debate, you implicitly assume that the person from SC/ST/OBC is inefficient, unworthy, good for nothing fellow. is merit measured thru academic records solely? then none other than the top 10 of each class in a school should be in leading role in different sectors. then merit must be measured thru enterprise. do you really have evidence that these people are less toiling, or less enterprising. i would really be indebted to any of you furnishing me any scientific study regarding that.no, no..you are getting all wrong. it's the merit list of the entrance exams that we are talking about. well, everyone knows that what success in today's entrance exams need is not really 'merit', but a combination of intelligence, proper guidance and practice, with the last two components dominating. when these people are provided quota entrance to institutes of higher education it's the compensation for the latter two that they are being given. and that too perhaps to right the millenia old historical wrongs perpetrated by uppercastes in our country. Or are you saying that it's the intelligence component that they are missing. wait, doesn't that sound like you have decided already, that they constitute a useless worthless mountain sitting of top of India's progress?

Ask a question to yourself. whose progress is at stake? >70%'s or <30%'s?>

teach them, coach them, make them eligible to face the competition, that should be the buzzword, right? unfortunately, these egalitarian views present themselves only when the reservation issue comes alive; none seems to be interested in these otherwise. thus the honesty in intentions of letting these people into the safely-guarded 'temples' of learning always remains dubious. and in a country like india where corruption is eating up the system from all possible sides, how do expect that it is really possible do all these for the people who have been alienated from the stream of learning for thousands of years?

but the times they are a changin'....the political power in the country slowly seems to be shifting away from the brahmins and the forward castes. that's why you will find that none of the mass based political parties will be against the new legislation, forget about the mandal type agitation. the corporate world,forward castes directly affected by these policies will no doubt resent ( and quite naturally!!) and the corporatized news media will go at lengths to fuel their anger and disgust.

the battle lines are drawn. the war is truely due.