The original crusades went on for two hundred years spread over several centuries of the Middle Ages. Another such albeit inverted crusade began with the birth of Israel and its unrelenting and merciless drive against the Palestinians in order to grab their land. The Gaza aggression (2008-2009) in which nearly 1400 mostly innocent Palestinians lost their life and thousands were injured was continuation of the same.
There was genocidal instinct behind the so called Operation Cast Lead. Of the only about 10 Israelis killed most of them were victims of friendly fire. One of the tea-shirts in vogue and now worn by Israeli soldiers displays the belly of a pregnant woman marked with a bull’s eye with the caption: I shot, 2killed. Another depicts a mother weeping beside her dead baby and a teddy bear the caption reads “Better Use Durex”. Both are tell-tale symptoms of same instinct to exterminate the Palestinians so that the Jews can have the land for themselves. Neither the mourning mother nor the pregnant woman physically and immediately poses a challenge to the IDF and yet they must have been most wantonly killed in real of which it is a depiction. What was depicted was taken from the real action that went on for 22 days of December and January. According to the statement of the Israeli soldiers the rabbinate had exhorted them to show no mercy to the Muslims because it was against the tenets of their religion. Another depiction is of a bombed out mosque. There is so much of dehumanizing of the Palestinians that in one tea shirt a young woman is shown with bruises which she must have incurred as she had tried to resist the rape by the Israeli soldier and the writing beside it is “Bet you got raped!”
A heart breaking scene of not showing mercy to the Muslims was the Shifa hospital where a Palestinian doctor was working. Dr Izzeldin Abuelash wept uncontrollably before the camera for the death of his three daughters aged 20, 15 and ten and a niece. Though he was not blaming the invading Jewish soldiers but there were many irate Israelis who shouted him down showing their anger that they had lost more and suffered more! Another instance of denying mercy was the killing of the nine year old Ibrahim, son of Kamal Awago. After killing him the Israelis took him by the leg and turned him and put him on a raised part for target practice and shot repeatedly! As these things were taking place, within Israel on a hill the Israeli civilians were enjoying the sight by eating ice cream as they watched from the ice cream stand how the bombers and Apache helicopters were taking off and shooting missiles at their random targets and phosphorus was sprayed causing pain and suffering on the ground some of which they could see with naked eye or through the binoculars. TIME reporter headlined the story: On the Gaza Border: Israelis Cheering on the Attacks.
The startling revelation by the soldiers of the Israeli army about the Gaza war leaves no doubt it was a part of a resurrected crusade for our time. As one of them identified as Ram has remarked: “the rabbinate brought in a lot of booklets and articles and their message was very clear: We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the non-Jews who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land. This was the main message, and the whole sense many soldiers had in this operation was of a religious war.” Indeed the army rabbinate had tons of books and roomfuls of books which it must have distributed to the IDF soldiers that ignited them to an induced crusade against the gentile Muslims, here the Palestinians of the Gaza strip.
This is pictorially borne out as the soldiers started wearing tea shirts with the motifs of the war written large on them.
Another soldier called Aviv says: On the one hand they (Palestinians) don't really have anywhere to flee to, but on the other hand they're(IDF senior officers) telling us they hadn't fled so it's their fault ..” Aviv was a squadron commander and others told him “Yeah, any person who's in Gaza is a terrorist”' What else is this than the truth that the Israeli army did not discriminate between the civilians and the Hamas militia and this indiscriminate treatment of the civilians constitutes in the words of Richard Falk war crime of the greatest magnitude. Even the Israeli NGO called Physicians for Human Rights has found through its own investigation of what is another proof of war crimes: "attacks on medical personnel; damage to medical facilities and indiscriminate attacks on civilians not involved in the fighting." It further says: "Israel placed numerous obstacles in the course of the operation that impeded emergency medical evacuation of the sick and wounded and also caused families to be trapped for days without food, water and medications," the report said. One specific incident cited by it is that of a Palestinian father called Shurrab whose two sons were shot by Israeli forces as they drove toward the southern city of Khan Yunis on Jan. 16.
"One of the sons died immediately, the other bled to death for 12 hours," the report said. "All that time the Israeli soldiers were within a short distance from the Shurrabs but did not provide any assistance despite the father's repeated requests."
What is the cause of merciless repression of the Palestinians of Gaza by the cuss and cruel Israelis? The heart of the matter is the holy land. Jews and Muslims as well as Christians consider Jerusalem and the environs as their holy land. They fought the crusades to get it or retain it. In the past the Jews and Muslims united fought against the Christian crusaders. Today thanks to superiority in arms the Israelis are hell bent in exterminating the Palestinians. The people of Gaza are displaced people, uprooted from the West Bank and Israel. They were forced to migrate because of the terrorism unleashed upon them by the Zionist settlers in the Middle East. Many of the people of Gaza were born and grew up in the West Bank which the Israelis captured in the 1967 seven day war and drove them out. When the Hamas fighters fire rockets called Qassim into Israel they see it as the only way to fight against the injustice they suffer at the hands of the Israelis. It is the Israelis who are responsible for their diasporic existence today and of all their miseries. The Israelis mount their merciless attacks on them in order to break their will power so that the hope to return to their land of birth and their rightful homeland dies in them.
Gaza war crime claims gather pace as more troops speak out.New York Times March 22, 2009.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/03/23/69053.html
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
A Tale of Two Jews: Dr Mordechai Vanunu and Bernard Madoff
In the wasteland of 21st century April is still the cruelest month what with mixing memory and desire! Something that TS Eliot would be amused to see if he were to return to earth today.
Two well known men of our time have their tryst with destiny in April 2009. One will come out of the most inhuman and soul searing imprisonment while the other will enter jail as an escape and dodge from further probes and more disastrous disclosures. One has dared to expose what is true danger to his country but the country has shown disregard to him and the other has robbed his country of 65 billion dollars to help another country. One has disowned the religion of his birth as protest and the other has espoused the cause of his religion to the extent of sacrificing the interest of the country of his birth and residence. One’s disclosure of his country has made him the enemy of the people there while the other’s attempt to hide the full extent of his crime against his country has shown up his country to be in the grip of his people’s lobby and their impunity to get away with the most heinous crimes for an extraterritorial loyalty, among others. One is the cynosure of what the best of humans can hope to rise to and the other is the nadir of ignominy. The two cases show a mirror to India in terms of conspiracy and its fullest import.
Mordechai Vanunu was born in a Jewish family in the Muslim dominated Morocco. The Israeli Zionists lured his ancestors to Israel as part of their strategy to consolidate their hold on the land that they had snatched from the Palestinians. They saw talent in the young Mordechai and gave him work in the top guarded secret place in the Negev desert where they made atom bombs with their Dimona nuclear reactor.
On July 26, 2004 he made headlines in much of the free world press: “Vanunu: Israel behind JKF assassination.” Vanunu found out that Israel had got John F Kennedy assassinated because he had started coercing Israel into shedding light on their Dimona nuclear plant. It was not racist killing as the world was made to believe. Kennedy had sent troops to guard a college where black students were given admission. That was only a ruse under which far more dangerous and disturbing secrets were hidden. Part of the secret was unveiled when the night club owner who shot dead assassin Oswald shouted that the Jews could do it! It was almost like the Delhi police who came upon the issue of “Hindu Rashtra” a paper that Nathuram Godse had been publishing from Pune and which he and his fellow accomplices had left in the hotel in a hurry to flee the capital after killing Gandhiji.
America had given the reactor to Israel under “atom for peace” programme. The Israeli Prime Minister Ben Gurion had misappropriated that for making bombs clandestinely. Kennedy came to know it and exerted pressure on Ben Gurion which resulted in the resignation of the prime minister in June 1963. To forestall the American move the group behind Ben Gurion got the American president removed from their path. Again like the coterie which resisted the pressure of Gandhiji to handover 55 crore rupees to Pakistan and stop the slaughter of Muslims in Delhi acted in the assassination in 1948.
The world is waiting with bated breath to hear more on the bombs and Kennedy when Vanunu is ultimately released from ‘house arrest’ in April 2009 and allowed to travel out of the country.
The world wide meltdown that began with the US in 2008 has a human face, Bernard Madoff of the Ponzi scheme. Thousands of people put their life time savings in this scheme and suddenly woke up in December 2008 to discover that it was a fraud and that they have lost everything. What is worst but not so much talked about the 65 billion thefts is that the money has ended up in Israel for its own use. The reason: he was a Jew who cared for Israel more than his own country, the US. It could also be that there are more powerful Zionist leaders involved in it. Among them is Ran Lubash of Lehman Bros or Israel. He it was who carried out 25 billion dollar transfer across borders for the government of Israel. It is believed that a part of the 65 billion dollar theft which was taken out of the US involved him. Or, the other is Harvey Krueger who is considered Father of Israeli Access to International Capital Markets.
But that conclusion is not so easily reached. Because it involves conspiracy to which Bernie has not pleaded guilty. The eleven charges he pleaded guilty are fraud, theft, money laundering and perjury. In case of conspiracy the Zionists would come in the fore which the Jewish lobby’s strangle-hold on America cannot allow. (It would be amusing to contrast the conspiracy behind the Malegaon blast, or the Samjhauta express blast from a different field, terrorism.) The two banks which have allegedly got some or all of the more than 50 billion in deposits are protected by the Swiss banking system secrecy laws. They are Israeli banks, the Israel Discount Bank of New York and Bank Leumi. Moreover they are managed by the close friends of Madoff, Sy Sum and Ezra Merkin. Bernie carefully guarded all details of his link with these banks from the public for the Zurich branches of these Israeli banks have allegedly the stolen money deposited there.
Why does Israel require so much of money? It already gets two billion dollars in annual aid for military and other purposes from the US government. There are outstanding expenditures to meet which go beyond the requirement of the military operation like the Gaza attacks which went on for 22 days and ended on January 18, 2009. Apart from buying potential representatives in the American Congress and senators on various committees and stymieing appointments of people perceived hostile to Israeli interest (the case of Charles Freeman appointment as chairman of National Intelligence Council). Israel is also reportedly involved in terrorist activities abroad. Its involvement in Malegaon bomb blast of September 29, 2008 has thrown up interesting details like the Israelis giving accused Srikant Purohit six months to prove what he had conspired to do. What exactly was he promised by the Israelis? If the Indian army was infiltrated by Mossad it would be natural that very heavy sum of money must have changed hands. It is worth noting that according to his own confession Purohit had reached some understanding with his contact in Israel, including securing safe haven for what would be criminals according to Indian laws who would commit high treason against the country and the government. A plain definition in dictionary says that when you make a secret plan with someone especially to do something wrong is conspiracy. Despite this the Anti Terrorist Squad of Maharashtra has the cheek to say that they would not investigate any further what Purohit has confessed in regard to Israel. In other words they have rejected the conspiracy theory out of hand.
This is tantamount to Madoff not pleading guilty of conspiring to siphoning off investment funds in his Ponzi scheme to Israel and the investigators leaving him at that.
The Negev desert has not produced lilacs but deadly atom, hydrogen and neutron bombs to the tune of hundreds! Moreover thanks to water terrorism of Israel by which it has sucked all the water from the wells of the Palestinians it has changed the occupied land which is no more a heap of broken images where the dead tree gives no shelter, the dry stone no sound of water, the cricket no relief as the sun beats. Where did the money come from for this miraculous transformation?
Two important things regarding the money are how did it go to Israel and where exactly is it stored? To unearth that it is but natural that there should be inquiry into the conspiracy.
Vanunu has often said that there was no need to have a Jewish state as the Jews lived everywhere in the world. The Jewish state is not only there but it has also once considered extrajudicial execution of the scientist. But it spared him because he was a born Jew. Will it hesitate to give asylum to people like Purohit?
Two well known men of our time have their tryst with destiny in April 2009. One will come out of the most inhuman and soul searing imprisonment while the other will enter jail as an escape and dodge from further probes and more disastrous disclosures. One has dared to expose what is true danger to his country but the country has shown disregard to him and the other has robbed his country of 65 billion dollars to help another country. One has disowned the religion of his birth as protest and the other has espoused the cause of his religion to the extent of sacrificing the interest of the country of his birth and residence. One’s disclosure of his country has made him the enemy of the people there while the other’s attempt to hide the full extent of his crime against his country has shown up his country to be in the grip of his people’s lobby and their impunity to get away with the most heinous crimes for an extraterritorial loyalty, among others. One is the cynosure of what the best of humans can hope to rise to and the other is the nadir of ignominy. The two cases show a mirror to India in terms of conspiracy and its fullest import.
Mordechai Vanunu was born in a Jewish family in the Muslim dominated Morocco. The Israeli Zionists lured his ancestors to Israel as part of their strategy to consolidate their hold on the land that they had snatched from the Palestinians. They saw talent in the young Mordechai and gave him work in the top guarded secret place in the Negev desert where they made atom bombs with their Dimona nuclear reactor.
On July 26, 2004 he made headlines in much of the free world press: “Vanunu: Israel behind JKF assassination.” Vanunu found out that Israel had got John F Kennedy assassinated because he had started coercing Israel into shedding light on their Dimona nuclear plant. It was not racist killing as the world was made to believe. Kennedy had sent troops to guard a college where black students were given admission. That was only a ruse under which far more dangerous and disturbing secrets were hidden. Part of the secret was unveiled when the night club owner who shot dead assassin Oswald shouted that the Jews could do it! It was almost like the Delhi police who came upon the issue of “Hindu Rashtra” a paper that Nathuram Godse had been publishing from Pune and which he and his fellow accomplices had left in the hotel in a hurry to flee the capital after killing Gandhiji.
America had given the reactor to Israel under “atom for peace” programme. The Israeli Prime Minister Ben Gurion had misappropriated that for making bombs clandestinely. Kennedy came to know it and exerted pressure on Ben Gurion which resulted in the resignation of the prime minister in June 1963. To forestall the American move the group behind Ben Gurion got the American president removed from their path. Again like the coterie which resisted the pressure of Gandhiji to handover 55 crore rupees to Pakistan and stop the slaughter of Muslims in Delhi acted in the assassination in 1948.
The world is waiting with bated breath to hear more on the bombs and Kennedy when Vanunu is ultimately released from ‘house arrest’ in April 2009 and allowed to travel out of the country.
The world wide meltdown that began with the US in 2008 has a human face, Bernard Madoff of the Ponzi scheme. Thousands of people put their life time savings in this scheme and suddenly woke up in December 2008 to discover that it was a fraud and that they have lost everything. What is worst but not so much talked about the 65 billion thefts is that the money has ended up in Israel for its own use. The reason: he was a Jew who cared for Israel more than his own country, the US. It could also be that there are more powerful Zionist leaders involved in it. Among them is Ran Lubash of Lehman Bros or Israel. He it was who carried out 25 billion dollar transfer across borders for the government of Israel. It is believed that a part of the 65 billion dollar theft which was taken out of the US involved him. Or, the other is Harvey Krueger who is considered Father of Israeli Access to International Capital Markets.
But that conclusion is not so easily reached. Because it involves conspiracy to which Bernie has not pleaded guilty. The eleven charges he pleaded guilty are fraud, theft, money laundering and perjury. In case of conspiracy the Zionists would come in the fore which the Jewish lobby’s strangle-hold on America cannot allow. (It would be amusing to contrast the conspiracy behind the Malegaon blast, or the Samjhauta express blast from a different field, terrorism.) The two banks which have allegedly got some or all of the more than 50 billion in deposits are protected by the Swiss banking system secrecy laws. They are Israeli banks, the Israel Discount Bank of New York and Bank Leumi. Moreover they are managed by the close friends of Madoff, Sy Sum and Ezra Merkin. Bernie carefully guarded all details of his link with these banks from the public for the Zurich branches of these Israeli banks have allegedly the stolen money deposited there.
Why does Israel require so much of money? It already gets two billion dollars in annual aid for military and other purposes from the US government. There are outstanding expenditures to meet which go beyond the requirement of the military operation like the Gaza attacks which went on for 22 days and ended on January 18, 2009. Apart from buying potential representatives in the American Congress and senators on various committees and stymieing appointments of people perceived hostile to Israeli interest (the case of Charles Freeman appointment as chairman of National Intelligence Council). Israel is also reportedly involved in terrorist activities abroad. Its involvement in Malegaon bomb blast of September 29, 2008 has thrown up interesting details like the Israelis giving accused Srikant Purohit six months to prove what he had conspired to do. What exactly was he promised by the Israelis? If the Indian army was infiltrated by Mossad it would be natural that very heavy sum of money must have changed hands. It is worth noting that according to his own confession Purohit had reached some understanding with his contact in Israel, including securing safe haven for what would be criminals according to Indian laws who would commit high treason against the country and the government. A plain definition in dictionary says that when you make a secret plan with someone especially to do something wrong is conspiracy. Despite this the Anti Terrorist Squad of Maharashtra has the cheek to say that they would not investigate any further what Purohit has confessed in regard to Israel. In other words they have rejected the conspiracy theory out of hand.
This is tantamount to Madoff not pleading guilty of conspiring to siphoning off investment funds in his Ponzi scheme to Israel and the investigators leaving him at that.
The Negev desert has not produced lilacs but deadly atom, hydrogen and neutron bombs to the tune of hundreds! Moreover thanks to water terrorism of Israel by which it has sucked all the water from the wells of the Palestinians it has changed the occupied land which is no more a heap of broken images where the dead tree gives no shelter, the dry stone no sound of water, the cricket no relief as the sun beats. Where did the money come from for this miraculous transformation?
Two important things regarding the money are how did it go to Israel and where exactly is it stored? To unearth that it is but natural that there should be inquiry into the conspiracy.
Vanunu has often said that there was no need to have a Jewish state as the Jews lived everywhere in the world. The Jewish state is not only there but it has also once considered extrajudicial execution of the scientist. But it spared him because he was a born Jew. Will it hesitate to give asylum to people like Purohit?
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Muslim ghettoes and health as adaptability
The current issue of the medical magazine the Lancet carries a lead article on what is health according to life today. It says health is not “state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being” nor is it “merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. Health is the ability to adapt to one’s environment. There is a profound truth in this definition which the magazine has taken from the French scientist Georges Canguilhem.
Space is an important determinant of health today. But it is no mere matter of the environmental concern. Space as an inanimate thing has a bearing on health. Muslim ghettoes around cities like Mumbai or Malegaon and everywhere else present an interesting picture of study in the health science.
Madanpura or Sankli Street in the centre of Mumbai are so congested and crowded with people and shops and traffic that you might wonder how any animal could survive in such a place. But look closely and you would have to be cautious to negotiate the scanty footpath if it is still there because the portly goat is occupying its own ‘reserve’ of public space meant for the humans. It is secured by a chain connected to either a shop or a dooryard or a corner post. The goats are invariably there cluttering the footpath along with the two or four wheelers and the usual domestic or shop adjuncts like a roll of bed tucked in between two sections of rooms or shops or cooking pots of the footpath dwellers. There might be the tawdry plastic mat spread with urchins sleeping or playing. If you enter a rooming house of four stories your host may not be available to welcome you but the hefty goat or the domestic cat will always be there. In case you turn up at night there would be the ubiquitous unwieldy rodents scampering in their sloth and not bothering to leave you space to walk in. It is their time to feed. Old or young resident you are not allowed to stroll around if you are still in the habit of taking a turn round the corner for a post dinner brief walk.
Biological diversity is there, yes, but space, no, what else is there then. The pigeons and crows who cannot afford space on the roads and footpath or dooryard are also present in their large numbers to claim that biological diversity does exist in Mumbai. The sparrows have disappeared; they are extinct, because they could not compete with the crows and pigeons. Moreover they were a little choosy about their food habits, unlike the omnivorous fellow birds. But the humans present a different picture. Their life style includes use of polythene bags for carrying food and throwing the left over and dirt all around. Until the corporation health workers come late in the morning the rodents turn the polythene bags in whichever way they like to root for the edible stuff within. Thus the spaces immediately adjacent to ground floor rooms are unsafe for walk or play. The space beyond this is fully covered with the vehicles of the people who live within the rooms or have shops there. If there is some space still left because yours is a blind alley the children and like them their elders play whatever game they can manage with a bat and a ball. The games produce more loud noise than any agile movement of the legs and arms.
The dust and dirt makes the vehicle so ugly a sight by morning that it has created a new profession. That is the factotum with a pail and a mop moving slowly in the morning washing the vehicles so that it is fit for you to sit and ride again. Your movement is further restricted by these workers in their diurnal visit to these areas.
If all the holy men of ancient India and the prophets of the Middle East were to visit these areas they would be dismayed by their followers taking their noble profession of shepherding to a logical conclusion. They would be amazed by the goats and sheep stuck in the third floor of buildings and in some cases confined to wooden platforms where their legs fall out of the boards and nails poking their hide and making sleep so difficult.
No doubt their flocks have survived because they have adapted to their new surroundings. But like their live stock they too are immobile, they cannot run or jump and are a sight to see. They carry more fat and flesh and seem to have forgotten fasting and parsimonious food habits and frugality of the earlier daily life of the desert or the Himalayas.
Among the live stocks are still the cocks and hens who not only navigate the collected pools of water around the streets but the balconies and roofs of protruding shops where the tenants of upper stories have thrown whatever they could manage in the nick of time.
Even the prophets and holy men would feel unwelcome in the one room living quarters of their followers. It would be too daunting to look up and see the too much constricting lofts where instead of dead stocks dumped are burrowing children and even young couples, hibernating according to whichever time and shift of work they have to go through.
Thus adaptability is health. But the Rip-Van-winkle sleep of the visitors would be nightmare what with diabetic condition, blood pressure, asthma, and so on of the humans and the animals alike. Even Canguilhem would have a wry smile on his face to see how health here in Madanpura is not defined by the doctors but by the person according to his or her functional needs in life!
Space is an important determinant of health today. But it is no mere matter of the environmental concern. Space as an inanimate thing has a bearing on health. Muslim ghettoes around cities like Mumbai or Malegaon and everywhere else present an interesting picture of study in the health science.
Madanpura or Sankli Street in the centre of Mumbai are so congested and crowded with people and shops and traffic that you might wonder how any animal could survive in such a place. But look closely and you would have to be cautious to negotiate the scanty footpath if it is still there because the portly goat is occupying its own ‘reserve’ of public space meant for the humans. It is secured by a chain connected to either a shop or a dooryard or a corner post. The goats are invariably there cluttering the footpath along with the two or four wheelers and the usual domestic or shop adjuncts like a roll of bed tucked in between two sections of rooms or shops or cooking pots of the footpath dwellers. There might be the tawdry plastic mat spread with urchins sleeping or playing. If you enter a rooming house of four stories your host may not be available to welcome you but the hefty goat or the domestic cat will always be there. In case you turn up at night there would be the ubiquitous unwieldy rodents scampering in their sloth and not bothering to leave you space to walk in. It is their time to feed. Old or young resident you are not allowed to stroll around if you are still in the habit of taking a turn round the corner for a post dinner brief walk.
Biological diversity is there, yes, but space, no, what else is there then. The pigeons and crows who cannot afford space on the roads and footpath or dooryard are also present in their large numbers to claim that biological diversity does exist in Mumbai. The sparrows have disappeared; they are extinct, because they could not compete with the crows and pigeons. Moreover they were a little choosy about their food habits, unlike the omnivorous fellow birds. But the humans present a different picture. Their life style includes use of polythene bags for carrying food and throwing the left over and dirt all around. Until the corporation health workers come late in the morning the rodents turn the polythene bags in whichever way they like to root for the edible stuff within. Thus the spaces immediately adjacent to ground floor rooms are unsafe for walk or play. The space beyond this is fully covered with the vehicles of the people who live within the rooms or have shops there. If there is some space still left because yours is a blind alley the children and like them their elders play whatever game they can manage with a bat and a ball. The games produce more loud noise than any agile movement of the legs and arms.
The dust and dirt makes the vehicle so ugly a sight by morning that it has created a new profession. That is the factotum with a pail and a mop moving slowly in the morning washing the vehicles so that it is fit for you to sit and ride again. Your movement is further restricted by these workers in their diurnal visit to these areas.
If all the holy men of ancient India and the prophets of the Middle East were to visit these areas they would be dismayed by their followers taking their noble profession of shepherding to a logical conclusion. They would be amazed by the goats and sheep stuck in the third floor of buildings and in some cases confined to wooden platforms where their legs fall out of the boards and nails poking their hide and making sleep so difficult.
No doubt their flocks have survived because they have adapted to their new surroundings. But like their live stock they too are immobile, they cannot run or jump and are a sight to see. They carry more fat and flesh and seem to have forgotten fasting and parsimonious food habits and frugality of the earlier daily life of the desert or the Himalayas.
Among the live stocks are still the cocks and hens who not only navigate the collected pools of water around the streets but the balconies and roofs of protruding shops where the tenants of upper stories have thrown whatever they could manage in the nick of time.
Even the prophets and holy men would feel unwelcome in the one room living quarters of their followers. It would be too daunting to look up and see the too much constricting lofts where instead of dead stocks dumped are burrowing children and even young couples, hibernating according to whichever time and shift of work they have to go through.
Thus adaptability is health. But the Rip-Van-winkle sleep of the visitors would be nightmare what with diabetic condition, blood pressure, asthma, and so on of the humans and the animals alike. Even Canguilhem would have a wry smile on his face to see how health here in Madanpura is not defined by the doctors but by the person according to his or her functional needs in life!
Friday, March 6, 2009
The sub-continental terrorism
The terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team is yet another reminder of how this corner of the world is wasting its energy in futility. If anything, terror will balkanize the people further. A fourth of the world population is concentrated into four countries of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka with inadequate resources. Yet the highest priority of the governments is defence expenditure rather than human development index. That hardly makes anyone safe and secure, least of all from their perceived or real enemies.
Territorial disputes and claims have spawned terrorism that is demanding its own pound of flesh in real terms. Such a situation would benefit those who would like to arm them to teeth and make them fight each other. Or, what is worse, they would like such troubles removed from their immediate vicinity so that they can thrive and dominate according to their wish, needs and way of life.
Lahore attack of March 3, 2009 on the Sri Lankan players is orchestration of this truth. Home to three major religions of the world, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, a terrorist attack here is inferred to be an attack by one group identified on the basis of religion and the target victims equally bear the religious identity of the so called ‘other’.
The security forces that are caught in such violent situation of not their making suffer and do their duty according to their discipline and how well or poorly they are equipped. In Lahore attack the terrorists made a pincer advance from three sides and used awesome weapons which are bound to awe and stun anyone howsoever motivated to fight back: two car bombs, grenades, three kilograms of explosives, pistols and a detonating cable and the deadly AK 47s spraying death and mayhem as well as rocket launchers which fired antitank grade grenades.
There were two police escort vans which first came under fire. They swung into operation and gave cover to the bus carrying the players from Sri Lanka. For about half an hour the fight lasted until then the bus reached the stadium. If the police had not fought as they did, taking hostage and moving into an adjoining building for holding up the victims and demanding safe passage and ransom would have followed. The swift action is the saving grace. Even so the score was quite high: there would be no meaningful cricket events for sometimes to come and no world cup in 2012. This is a devastating blow to Pakistan economy when they were just counting on making millions of dollars to stave off from more bankruptcy and loans.
No western country and not even Israel has ever suffered such a fate. What is true of Lahore is true of Mumbai attacks of November 26, 2008. Indian economy could absorb the financial loss much easier because ours is more vibrant economy than that of our neighbours’. But the overall loss is of the whole region of south Asian neighbours. We must hark back to the resolutions of 2005 when the same neighbours wanted to improve life of the people and situation in the region through cricket matches. The tension and fissiparous tendencies that always accompanied a match between India and Pakistan had started losing grip on the minds and hearts of the people. A hope for neighbourly feeling was being born. But all that is now gone with wind.
The attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers was well coordinated. The twelve attackers not only succeeded in killing six policemen, a driver and two by standards and injuring some half dozen players but also escaped from the scene. This is amazing by all standards because there was already a heightened sense of security not only in Pakistan but all around the subcontinent in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks of November last year. Moreover India had already pulled out of the events and therefore there was need for extra caution. The host team and the government could not have overlooked this aspect. What is significantly underlined was that the Sri Lankan team had come in lieu of the Indian team which had cancelled its visit in response to the terrorist attack on its soil.
A long time critic of his government and former skipper Imran Khan remarked vehemently that the attack was not made by the Talibans or the al Qaeda and the Pakistan Prime Minister asserted that it was carried out by the same group of terrorists who were behind the Mumbai November 2008 attack. Lashker e Taiba which is blamed for the Mumbai attack is unlikely to undertake such an attack in the province of its birth and recruitment as it would lose support for cricket is the ruling passion of the people of Punjab and much of Pakistan. Moreover the religious angle is out of consideration here. LeT is not known to have carried out any attack on Pakistan soil itself.
The reaction of Imran Khan deserves notice because he is excruciatingly frank that his country is made to suffer for what the world believes it is plagued by the Talibans and al Qaeda who are not this time involved in the attacks. If there is a grain of truth in this then it is ominously frightening to surmise who is behind the attacks. It does not have necessarily to be the arch rival India. There may now be international players on the scene whom some agencies have outsourced terror. A money changer who watched the scene hardly 30 meters away remarked that the gunmen "looked Nepali or Filipino, maybe Indian."
Of course it is difficult if not altogether impossible to make sense of every claim and assertion. For example the scale of Mumbai attacks and extent of destruction do not match with the work of ten who could have done so much. Then there is the witness account that many had seen white skinned attackers of non Asian origin at the VT station. Where have they gone? A nurse is on record saying that the attackers at the Cama hospital spoke fluent Marathi! If the attackers in Lahore spoke Pushtun then what does their appearance like Nepalese or Filipinos or Indians imply? Or, could it be that there were several groups involved in both the attacks and the terrorists of foreign origin were withdrawn in the course of the operation? Then, right from the beginning of the Mumbai attacks television reports said that the Chabbad house had ordered one hundred kilos of chicken and a huge amount of liquor. This makes one feel that there is a kind of ‘packaged terrorism’ ordered from outside. From this point in time and place it is not possible to be definite about things but one thing still remains irrepressible that there is some kind of cooperation or coordination between groups of terrorists and agents.
The Asian subcontinent is a mosaic of different cultures but it has humanity and fair sense of sharing in the values of what different religions have taught over the years. In the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks there was a popular ground swell for sharing the suffering the victims have gone through and how to reach out to them. There was also resentment against the government and politicians who failed to respond as they were more preoccupied with corruption and mismanagement. In what way does a Zardari or Sharif cut a different figure? There is a letter from the editor of The Post of Lahore where the writer gives vent to the feelings of many ordinary people: "My nation asks where the hell more police officials were, so that they could have stood right in front of the firing spree. My people also regret their presence at the scene so that they could have stood between the firing and the players' bus. And believe me, if the masses would have been allowed, they must have not only ensured that any injury to any player, but have also picked up some of the culprits.” According Fareed Zakaria Muslims generally would “settle for order” and the letter of the editor is imbued with that spirit. Recall the gathering of people at the Taj hotel showing solidarity and desire for peace and resentment against corruption and ineptitude of government in protecting life of the people. It too was expression of the same human spirit.
Territorial disputes and claims have spawned terrorism that is demanding its own pound of flesh in real terms. Such a situation would benefit those who would like to arm them to teeth and make them fight each other. Or, what is worse, they would like such troubles removed from their immediate vicinity so that they can thrive and dominate according to their wish, needs and way of life.
Lahore attack of March 3, 2009 on the Sri Lankan players is orchestration of this truth. Home to three major religions of the world, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, a terrorist attack here is inferred to be an attack by one group identified on the basis of religion and the target victims equally bear the religious identity of the so called ‘other’.
The security forces that are caught in such violent situation of not their making suffer and do their duty according to their discipline and how well or poorly they are equipped. In Lahore attack the terrorists made a pincer advance from three sides and used awesome weapons which are bound to awe and stun anyone howsoever motivated to fight back: two car bombs, grenades, three kilograms of explosives, pistols and a detonating cable and the deadly AK 47s spraying death and mayhem as well as rocket launchers which fired antitank grade grenades.
There were two police escort vans which first came under fire. They swung into operation and gave cover to the bus carrying the players from Sri Lanka. For about half an hour the fight lasted until then the bus reached the stadium. If the police had not fought as they did, taking hostage and moving into an adjoining building for holding up the victims and demanding safe passage and ransom would have followed. The swift action is the saving grace. Even so the score was quite high: there would be no meaningful cricket events for sometimes to come and no world cup in 2012. This is a devastating blow to Pakistan economy when they were just counting on making millions of dollars to stave off from more bankruptcy and loans.
No western country and not even Israel has ever suffered such a fate. What is true of Lahore is true of Mumbai attacks of November 26, 2008. Indian economy could absorb the financial loss much easier because ours is more vibrant economy than that of our neighbours’. But the overall loss is of the whole region of south Asian neighbours. We must hark back to the resolutions of 2005 when the same neighbours wanted to improve life of the people and situation in the region through cricket matches. The tension and fissiparous tendencies that always accompanied a match between India and Pakistan had started losing grip on the minds and hearts of the people. A hope for neighbourly feeling was being born. But all that is now gone with wind.
The attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers was well coordinated. The twelve attackers not only succeeded in killing six policemen, a driver and two by standards and injuring some half dozen players but also escaped from the scene. This is amazing by all standards because there was already a heightened sense of security not only in Pakistan but all around the subcontinent in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks of November last year. Moreover India had already pulled out of the events and therefore there was need for extra caution. The host team and the government could not have overlooked this aspect. What is significantly underlined was that the Sri Lankan team had come in lieu of the Indian team which had cancelled its visit in response to the terrorist attack on its soil.
A long time critic of his government and former skipper Imran Khan remarked vehemently that the attack was not made by the Talibans or the al Qaeda and the Pakistan Prime Minister asserted that it was carried out by the same group of terrorists who were behind the Mumbai November 2008 attack. Lashker e Taiba which is blamed for the Mumbai attack is unlikely to undertake such an attack in the province of its birth and recruitment as it would lose support for cricket is the ruling passion of the people of Punjab and much of Pakistan. Moreover the religious angle is out of consideration here. LeT is not known to have carried out any attack on Pakistan soil itself.
The reaction of Imran Khan deserves notice because he is excruciatingly frank that his country is made to suffer for what the world believes it is plagued by the Talibans and al Qaeda who are not this time involved in the attacks. If there is a grain of truth in this then it is ominously frightening to surmise who is behind the attacks. It does not have necessarily to be the arch rival India. There may now be international players on the scene whom some agencies have outsourced terror. A money changer who watched the scene hardly 30 meters away remarked that the gunmen "looked Nepali or Filipino, maybe Indian."
Of course it is difficult if not altogether impossible to make sense of every claim and assertion. For example the scale of Mumbai attacks and extent of destruction do not match with the work of ten who could have done so much. Then there is the witness account that many had seen white skinned attackers of non Asian origin at the VT station. Where have they gone? A nurse is on record saying that the attackers at the Cama hospital spoke fluent Marathi! If the attackers in Lahore spoke Pushtun then what does their appearance like Nepalese or Filipinos or Indians imply? Or, could it be that there were several groups involved in both the attacks and the terrorists of foreign origin were withdrawn in the course of the operation? Then, right from the beginning of the Mumbai attacks television reports said that the Chabbad house had ordered one hundred kilos of chicken and a huge amount of liquor. This makes one feel that there is a kind of ‘packaged terrorism’ ordered from outside. From this point in time and place it is not possible to be definite about things but one thing still remains irrepressible that there is some kind of cooperation or coordination between groups of terrorists and agents.
The Asian subcontinent is a mosaic of different cultures but it has humanity and fair sense of sharing in the values of what different religions have taught over the years. In the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks there was a popular ground swell for sharing the suffering the victims have gone through and how to reach out to them. There was also resentment against the government and politicians who failed to respond as they were more preoccupied with corruption and mismanagement. In what way does a Zardari or Sharif cut a different figure? There is a letter from the editor of The Post of Lahore where the writer gives vent to the feelings of many ordinary people: "My nation asks where the hell more police officials were, so that they could have stood right in front of the firing spree. My people also regret their presence at the scene so that they could have stood between the firing and the players' bus. And believe me, if the masses would have been allowed, they must have not only ensured that any injury to any player, but have also picked up some of the culprits.” According Fareed Zakaria Muslims generally would “settle for order” and the letter of the editor is imbued with that spirit. Recall the gathering of people at the Taj hotel showing solidarity and desire for peace and resentment against corruption and ineptitude of government in protecting life of the people. It too was expression of the same human spirit.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Indian security and MK Narayanan: barking up the wrong tree
Bandying of crime dossiers across the borders of India and Pakistan followed by demands for more information has become ludicrous. It looks like the movie of the fifties where the Kohinoor diamond was tossed between the hero and the heroine in an attempt to avoid the villain from getting it. The wretched villain loses his wit in the melee! Or, like endlessly passing the hat from Pozo to Lucky and the tramps to see if a foreign body has entered in it in Samuel Beckette’s “Waiting for Godot.”
What is missed in the process is the undeniable fact that security of the country is primarily the top duty of the country itself and the government’s raison d’ etre. Preoccupation with other matters and predilection of the mind itself surely veers us off the course of guarding the country. Courts and even election commissioners have reminded the rulers of the country that fiddling when the Rome was burning does no one good. Even the highest executive officer of the country who reminded another such officer of the state of his rajdharm was napping at the helm, nay he couldn’t help it among other things his age and desire for fried food and even drinks came in the way!
The national security advisor is another kettle of fish. He cannot be negotiator because he is not a diplomat. He cannot be the defence minister because monitoring the defence at the borders is not advising the government on security. Nor should issuing statement which can be construed politically at variance with the government policy or that can spill the beans.
If MK Narayanan could save his head from rolling in the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorists’ attacks his career must attract scrutiny for the hidden caliber he has for emulation by others.
The Indian embassy attack in Kabul on July 7, 2008 was horrendous by all accounts. No doubt it was brutal, inhuman and condemnable in the strongest terms. But in the excitement it was not the lunatic fringes like Narendra Modi, Bal Thackeray or Pravin Togadia who voiced for “retaliation in kind”. Giving interview to NDTV Mr Narayanan chorused that ISI was behind the attack. Too many definite articles in a brief sentence could not make it brevity as the soul of wit when he said: “We are in the favour of the peace process, but the ISI is not…The ISI is playing evil.” Hence he prescribed the remedy: “retaliate in kind.” His memory should have flashed to him what another national security advisor, Zbignieve Brzezinskiof the US, has advised that terror cannot be fought with terror. It is a matter of tactics and calls for better tactics.
Given our high stake in Afghanistan the latter course was advisable. India has invested highest amount of money in Afghanistan of all countries in the world, 750 million dollars plus 3500 Indian workers involved in the construction. We are building a road that would give the landlocked country an access to a sea port in Iran as well as building power transmission from Uzbekistan into Afghanistan. These developmental works would go a longer way to help the wretched country struggling to survive occupation by foreign powers one after another.
“Resolving old rivalries” and not retaliation should have been the wise counsel anyone should expect from the security advisor. As Raja Mohan said what is equally true of the recent Mumbai attacks: “Whatever problems we had with Pakistan, Pakistan had been a buffer between India and the bandlands. Now the buffer is falling apart.” But instead of stabilizing Afghanistan and Pakistan so that we maintain leeway we have had so far there is again desire for impulsive action.
When President Barack Obama called for settling Kashmir dispute so that the two neighbours could face the challenge of terrorism in a concerted way, Narayanan gave way to impetuosity rather than considered deliberate response when he remarked that it was like the dog barking up at the wrong tree. This is surprising if not disgusting ( but disgusting was when at the height of the antichristian riots in Kandhamal, Orissa and Karnataka as well as Madhya Pardesh he found it advisable that perpetrators of cruelty, namely Bajrand Dal, be not banned) for the reason that the CIA had made India and Pakistan share intelligence on the Mumbai attacks. The US also allowed FBI in the investigation that fitted well with the long felt need for cooperation in tackling cross border terrorism. Moreover Pakistan for the first time ever accepted that the plot was hatched on its soil by people who lived there. This was a very considerable change in the situation according to our former foreign secretary, Salman Haider.
Why did Narayanan miss the more prying intelligence in put? It would be too much to say as Julio Reibero says that “he slipped up on this one particular occasion (Mumbai attacks) because he had too much on his plate,” but certainly of late he had “bitten off more than he could chew.” May be old age.
But even before the American envoy Richard C Holbrook arrived we started voicing our misgivings that he should limit to only Afghanistan and Pakistan affairs. This is our latent fear that any American move would involve internationalizing the Kashmir issue. But there is a chemistry of change which does not justify that ‘milk burnt us once and so we drink whey blowing cold wind over it.’
What is missed in the process is the undeniable fact that security of the country is primarily the top duty of the country itself and the government’s raison d’ etre. Preoccupation with other matters and predilection of the mind itself surely veers us off the course of guarding the country. Courts and even election commissioners have reminded the rulers of the country that fiddling when the Rome was burning does no one good. Even the highest executive officer of the country who reminded another such officer of the state of his rajdharm was napping at the helm, nay he couldn’t help it among other things his age and desire for fried food and even drinks came in the way!
The national security advisor is another kettle of fish. He cannot be negotiator because he is not a diplomat. He cannot be the defence minister because monitoring the defence at the borders is not advising the government on security. Nor should issuing statement which can be construed politically at variance with the government policy or that can spill the beans.
If MK Narayanan could save his head from rolling in the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorists’ attacks his career must attract scrutiny for the hidden caliber he has for emulation by others.
The Indian embassy attack in Kabul on July 7, 2008 was horrendous by all accounts. No doubt it was brutal, inhuman and condemnable in the strongest terms. But in the excitement it was not the lunatic fringes like Narendra Modi, Bal Thackeray or Pravin Togadia who voiced for “retaliation in kind”. Giving interview to NDTV Mr Narayanan chorused that ISI was behind the attack. Too many definite articles in a brief sentence could not make it brevity as the soul of wit when he said: “We are in the favour of the peace process, but the ISI is not…The ISI is playing evil.” Hence he prescribed the remedy: “retaliate in kind.” His memory should have flashed to him what another national security advisor, Zbignieve Brzezinskiof the US, has advised that terror cannot be fought with terror. It is a matter of tactics and calls for better tactics.
Given our high stake in Afghanistan the latter course was advisable. India has invested highest amount of money in Afghanistan of all countries in the world, 750 million dollars plus 3500 Indian workers involved in the construction. We are building a road that would give the landlocked country an access to a sea port in Iran as well as building power transmission from Uzbekistan into Afghanistan. These developmental works would go a longer way to help the wretched country struggling to survive occupation by foreign powers one after another.
“Resolving old rivalries” and not retaliation should have been the wise counsel anyone should expect from the security advisor. As Raja Mohan said what is equally true of the recent Mumbai attacks: “Whatever problems we had with Pakistan, Pakistan had been a buffer between India and the bandlands. Now the buffer is falling apart.” But instead of stabilizing Afghanistan and Pakistan so that we maintain leeway we have had so far there is again desire for impulsive action.
When President Barack Obama called for settling Kashmir dispute so that the two neighbours could face the challenge of terrorism in a concerted way, Narayanan gave way to impetuosity rather than considered deliberate response when he remarked that it was like the dog barking up at the wrong tree. This is surprising if not disgusting ( but disgusting was when at the height of the antichristian riots in Kandhamal, Orissa and Karnataka as well as Madhya Pardesh he found it advisable that perpetrators of cruelty, namely Bajrand Dal, be not banned) for the reason that the CIA had made India and Pakistan share intelligence on the Mumbai attacks. The US also allowed FBI in the investigation that fitted well with the long felt need for cooperation in tackling cross border terrorism. Moreover Pakistan for the first time ever accepted that the plot was hatched on its soil by people who lived there. This was a very considerable change in the situation according to our former foreign secretary, Salman Haider.
Why did Narayanan miss the more prying intelligence in put? It would be too much to say as Julio Reibero says that “he slipped up on this one particular occasion (Mumbai attacks) because he had too much on his plate,” but certainly of late he had “bitten off more than he could chew.” May be old age.
But even before the American envoy Richard C Holbrook arrived we started voicing our misgivings that he should limit to only Afghanistan and Pakistan affairs. This is our latent fear that any American move would involve internationalizing the Kashmir issue. But there is a chemistry of change which does not justify that ‘milk burnt us once and so we drink whey blowing cold wind over it.’
Thursday, February 12, 2009
On the eve of St Valentine’s: “all women in Mangalore are home by 7 p.m.”
If the English poet John Keats were alive today and based in the international IT hub city of Bangalore what would he have done? He would have written another of his immortal poems like the Eve of St Agnes. Keats would have been perplexed by Pramod Muthaliks and Raj Thackerays and the Praveen Valkes and their antics.
However Keats died too young to even see the fate of many contemporaries or the younger generation. One such was Thomas Carlyle the moral philosopher of the Victorian age. There is good deal of similarity between Carlyle and Muthalik. They lack what the minister of women and child development Renuka Chowdhary calls the give and take of life. The prudery of the Victorian age is paralleled by what is going on in India today. The skeletons in our wardrobe as in their backyard are quite numerous and hypocrisy the ruling passion. Frank Harris writes in his famous book My Life and Loves that after death of Carlyle when Mrs. Carlyle went for medical checkup on account of menopause the doctor was surprised to see that she had her maidenhead intact!
To the randy writer Harris it may have been amusing but to the health minister it is rather abnormal. She believes that members of her jat community have confidence of their masculinity and take care of their girls and women. But then it would also mean that others are not like her sturdy community and therefore their women go ‘astray.’ Or else what does she mean by that?
More is at stake than just male prowess, if that can be all satisfying according to the consideration of the minister. The kidnapping and assault on the Kerala MLA’s daughter Shruthi and her Muslim boy friend is quite a serious matter. There are many reasons why young people come together for a chat. Sex alone is not the predominant thought when they meet. It is also true more informed youths know the limits of family and surrounding on their choice for a future. Thier relationship may or may not be intimate physically or spiritually. And if it is, what is the degree that is allowable, sharing joint seats or talking across the aisle? Physical health is no problem in Kerala but marriage, depression and suicides are. There are many socio-economic-educational factors responsible. Religion alone cannot be held accountable for such behavior. Moreover there is nothing wrong in boys and girls aboard a bus talking with each other while en-route to their destination. Politicizing and communalizing the behavior is.
And that is what has happened in Karnataka as it did in Kashmir. I recall nearly three weeks spent in Kashmir in 1988 just before the scourge of terror and insurgency and the counter insurgency violence erupted. The people lived much different. They had what can be called the modest ‘veiling of eyes”. They would not look or pry into the face or figure of a girl or woman. Sizing up, ogling or groping was almost nonexistent. But then that situation changed drastically, and now you have a Pandora’ box of manners and morals opened.
Anyway, in the rest of the country and more notably in Bangalore, and Mangalore is not far from there, the upheaval of globalization and floating population created problems. Those who felt their hold on culture was fragile began to react in a paranoid manner and others jumped in for their political craze. Five thousand years of Indian culture does stick to people who care for it but those who are swayed with the tide of time find different moorings.
On the eve of St Valentine’s we need to step out of our work places and houses, to stand out to be counted for basic rights of all human beings and stamp out fundamentalism of all sorts so that India can remain a free democracy for all the people who enjoy equality before laws of the land and equal share in all other spheres of life. As it is this resolve of protest of pink chaddi against the khak (and the farcical return of pink sarees)is not and should not be the matter of one day. It calls for a comprehensive and lasting venture together to rid the society of lawlessness of all kinds and bring in better governance.
In the meantime, Muthalik with his goons will be moving around with tubs of turmeric solution, mangalshutra, and priests (of course, moulvis will not be allowed, but then will Shruthi be allowed to tie the rakhi which the Shri Rama Sene will have abundance in stock?). Similarly, what if people of two different communities not necessarily of two different faiths want to marry? Will the constitution of the country be allowed to take its course? Renuka says we straddle the entire world and we are fond of new things despite our ancient culture and identity or identities.
Indian society is rich in multiple identities and hence there is need for multiple pronged attempts to find solution to the problems that beset all and not just one community. As no community is free from the threat of fundamentalism and yet we have to live together there must evolve a common strategy to ward off violence produced by fundamentalism. All efforts must be within the framework of the civil laws of the land. Even more important is creating understanding among the people as well as inculcating tolerance. Compulsive and competitive communalism has wrought havoc and threatens to unravel the society itself.
There are extremists who throw acid at girls coming out without covering themselves in veils. If caught such people would be sentenced to imprisonment. Already our prisons have highest number of prisoners from Muslim community. Adding more does not make sense but reforming those does. It can help bring equilibrium and result in sanity. There is an incident to think over. The blind Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rehman who became famous after he was indicted and imprisoned for life for involvement in the February 1993 attack on the World Trade Centre killing 6 and injuring a thousand in New York once visited the famous Masjid at Taqwa, Brooklyn, where Siraj Wahhaj was imam. Omar told the gathering of about 150 that they should rob banks to benefit Islam! The imam stopped him, “Sheikh, no. You got brothers here, some of them came out of prison, and you are letting them know that this is permissible. I disagree with that.” Omar smiled and said “Imam Siraj is right.” Therefore not rhetoric but wise counsel must prevail. It is important to note that reforming the felonious benefited Islam more than robbing banks, improving the neighbourhood benefited Muslims more than turning a blind eye to the degradation and neglect of the ghettos. Fifteen drug houses were shut down when the imam and his followers peacefully boycotted them, full forty days ala Noah and his flood.
The state and the government of India cannot and must not allow any fundamentalist to sink roots. Srikant Purohit, Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur, Pramod Muthalik as also the acid throwing Muslims are extreme fundamentalists of different hues and degree and their deeds create terror with varying range of disaster. The bomb that Ramji, Mutalik and Dange planted in Bhiku chowk, Malegaon, killed seven and injured more than seventy. If purda enforcing extreme fundamentalists move around from the bus stand to Bhiku chow the disaster would be unimaginable. It does not warrant drawing sword at women who come out of their houses unveiled. The area is so densely populated that there are no snakes left as they were in Arabia fourteen hundred years ago. The women rush out of their tenements not because they see a snake but because the chore and children outside call them urgently. There is such degradation of life that most of the natives of Malegaon in the indicated area have their drinking water stored outside the house and also their washing tubs, hedging in a dingy space with spinning wheels and what not as their drawing room! Therefore the need of the hour is not enforcing the diktats of the fundamentalists but understanding of the judicious counsel of the well meaning. No more ‘jhalaks’ of Malegaon!
However Keats died too young to even see the fate of many contemporaries or the younger generation. One such was Thomas Carlyle the moral philosopher of the Victorian age. There is good deal of similarity between Carlyle and Muthalik. They lack what the minister of women and child development Renuka Chowdhary calls the give and take of life. The prudery of the Victorian age is paralleled by what is going on in India today. The skeletons in our wardrobe as in their backyard are quite numerous and hypocrisy the ruling passion. Frank Harris writes in his famous book My Life and Loves that after death of Carlyle when Mrs. Carlyle went for medical checkup on account of menopause the doctor was surprised to see that she had her maidenhead intact!
To the randy writer Harris it may have been amusing but to the health minister it is rather abnormal. She believes that members of her jat community have confidence of their masculinity and take care of their girls and women. But then it would also mean that others are not like her sturdy community and therefore their women go ‘astray.’ Or else what does she mean by that?
More is at stake than just male prowess, if that can be all satisfying according to the consideration of the minister. The kidnapping and assault on the Kerala MLA’s daughter Shruthi and her Muslim boy friend is quite a serious matter. There are many reasons why young people come together for a chat. Sex alone is not the predominant thought when they meet. It is also true more informed youths know the limits of family and surrounding on their choice for a future. Thier relationship may or may not be intimate physically or spiritually. And if it is, what is the degree that is allowable, sharing joint seats or talking across the aisle? Physical health is no problem in Kerala but marriage, depression and suicides are. There are many socio-economic-educational factors responsible. Religion alone cannot be held accountable for such behavior. Moreover there is nothing wrong in boys and girls aboard a bus talking with each other while en-route to their destination. Politicizing and communalizing the behavior is.
And that is what has happened in Karnataka as it did in Kashmir. I recall nearly three weeks spent in Kashmir in 1988 just before the scourge of terror and insurgency and the counter insurgency violence erupted. The people lived much different. They had what can be called the modest ‘veiling of eyes”. They would not look or pry into the face or figure of a girl or woman. Sizing up, ogling or groping was almost nonexistent. But then that situation changed drastically, and now you have a Pandora’ box of manners and morals opened.
Anyway, in the rest of the country and more notably in Bangalore, and Mangalore is not far from there, the upheaval of globalization and floating population created problems. Those who felt their hold on culture was fragile began to react in a paranoid manner and others jumped in for their political craze. Five thousand years of Indian culture does stick to people who care for it but those who are swayed with the tide of time find different moorings.
On the eve of St Valentine’s we need to step out of our work places and houses, to stand out to be counted for basic rights of all human beings and stamp out fundamentalism of all sorts so that India can remain a free democracy for all the people who enjoy equality before laws of the land and equal share in all other spheres of life. As it is this resolve of protest of pink chaddi against the khak (and the farcical return of pink sarees)is not and should not be the matter of one day. It calls for a comprehensive and lasting venture together to rid the society of lawlessness of all kinds and bring in better governance.
In the meantime, Muthalik with his goons will be moving around with tubs of turmeric solution, mangalshutra, and priests (of course, moulvis will not be allowed, but then will Shruthi be allowed to tie the rakhi which the Shri Rama Sene will have abundance in stock?). Similarly, what if people of two different communities not necessarily of two different faiths want to marry? Will the constitution of the country be allowed to take its course? Renuka says we straddle the entire world and we are fond of new things despite our ancient culture and identity or identities.
Indian society is rich in multiple identities and hence there is need for multiple pronged attempts to find solution to the problems that beset all and not just one community. As no community is free from the threat of fundamentalism and yet we have to live together there must evolve a common strategy to ward off violence produced by fundamentalism. All efforts must be within the framework of the civil laws of the land. Even more important is creating understanding among the people as well as inculcating tolerance. Compulsive and competitive communalism has wrought havoc and threatens to unravel the society itself.
There are extremists who throw acid at girls coming out without covering themselves in veils. If caught such people would be sentenced to imprisonment. Already our prisons have highest number of prisoners from Muslim community. Adding more does not make sense but reforming those does. It can help bring equilibrium and result in sanity. There is an incident to think over. The blind Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rehman who became famous after he was indicted and imprisoned for life for involvement in the February 1993 attack on the World Trade Centre killing 6 and injuring a thousand in New York once visited the famous Masjid at Taqwa, Brooklyn, where Siraj Wahhaj was imam. Omar told the gathering of about 150 that they should rob banks to benefit Islam! The imam stopped him, “Sheikh, no. You got brothers here, some of them came out of prison, and you are letting them know that this is permissible. I disagree with that.” Omar smiled and said “Imam Siraj is right.” Therefore not rhetoric but wise counsel must prevail. It is important to note that reforming the felonious benefited Islam more than robbing banks, improving the neighbourhood benefited Muslims more than turning a blind eye to the degradation and neglect of the ghettos. Fifteen drug houses were shut down when the imam and his followers peacefully boycotted them, full forty days ala Noah and his flood.
The state and the government of India cannot and must not allow any fundamentalist to sink roots. Srikant Purohit, Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur, Pramod Muthalik as also the acid throwing Muslims are extreme fundamentalists of different hues and degree and their deeds create terror with varying range of disaster. The bomb that Ramji, Mutalik and Dange planted in Bhiku chowk, Malegaon, killed seven and injured more than seventy. If purda enforcing extreme fundamentalists move around from the bus stand to Bhiku chow the disaster would be unimaginable. It does not warrant drawing sword at women who come out of their houses unveiled. The area is so densely populated that there are no snakes left as they were in Arabia fourteen hundred years ago. The women rush out of their tenements not because they see a snake but because the chore and children outside call them urgently. There is such degradation of life that most of the natives of Malegaon in the indicated area have their drinking water stored outside the house and also their washing tubs, hedging in a dingy space with spinning wheels and what not as their drawing room! Therefore the need of the hour is not enforcing the diktats of the fundamentalists but understanding of the judicious counsel of the well meaning. No more ‘jhalaks’ of Malegaon!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Pramod Muthalik: Stalwart of sangh parivar coming home to roost!
The crisis created by Lt Col Srikant Purohit of Abhinav Bharat and Pramod Muthalike of Sri Ram Sena is complementary to each other. They have been nurtured on an extreme ideology. The ‘culture’ that Hindutva laboratories have developed in the name of Hindu ‘culture’ has at long last begun to assert its Frankenstein existence of its own. The monster is no more in the control of the scientists. Both the organizations are equally dangerous to the unity and the integrity of the country. Purohit and his Abhinav Bharat have been in the news for quite sometimes but not so much Muthalik and his SRS.
Muthalik is called the Togadia of Karnataka or the south. In appearance he could still beguile a naïve person like Francois Gautier as herbivorous and toothless and even gum less oldie. But a man is known by his deeds and association. As the chip of the old block he owes his existence and essence to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. In the aftermath of the Gujarat pogroms against Muslims Parveen Togadia regaling in the lusty cheering of his audience had told the people that they have to leave the path of Mahatma Gandhi for good. He was not only justifying what had happened but also the course of action that VD Savarkar, Moonje and RSS had defined—the organized secretive and physical aggression on the enemy (primarily the Muslims). They did not confront the British or the Portuguese while India was struggling for its freedom. Christians did not become target until the later part of the first decade of the twenty first century. Togadia and Muthalik have originated from the sangh but with a difference. They have a penchant for rabid tirade against the Muslims in a very open offensive manner unlike the sophistry of the sangh echelon. This is true to only an extent because the sarsangh chalak at the time of the demolition of Babri mosque and the anti Muslims riots subsequent to it had justified all this saying that the Muslims had it coming to them! Muthalik has been doing almost like the sangh and Togadia in a copycat manner.
The vandalizing of the pub and the molestation of the girls in Mangalore by the SRS thugs of Muthalik on January 25 2009 has all the hallmarks of the sangh. The Hindus have not been prudish. Muthalik and his cohorts have vividly demonstrated how Hindutva is grafting an alien mores on the indigenous vibrant culture that is famed for care free celebration of sexuality as captured in the sculptures and paintings of Khajuraho, Ajanta, Ellora, and in kamashutra, and in words and deeds recorded in history, arts and literature. Hence the attack on FM Hussein’s paintings including the much vaunted naked Darupadi on August 2008.
The other grafting that is worth note is violence or martial spirit. Hindus have been having a peaceful coexistence with people of different races and religions for ages together. This did not go well with some who were uncomfortable with this setup as they could not have their own axes to grind and so they invented ways and means of doing it. In the present case of attack on the pub SRS targeted the pub because the owner was a new comer to the place and had not coughed up the extortion money they had deemed their birth right. This is much like the sons of the soil extortion of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra which so scared textile industry that they migrated to safer havens. Therefore enforcing a different dress code and using muscle power are foisted upon the Hindus who do not have it atavistically in their blood or tradition. In Sahni’s novel Tamash the Hindu youths are inducted into culture of violence by their training in killing pigs to begin with. Examples of these are: attacks on Churches in Karnatak September 2008, on fashion shows in Moti Mahal Manglor Decemer 20, 2008 and usual run of the mill, manhandling those indulging in Valentine Day celebration. The youths carried out these attacks at the behest of Muthalik.
If it were only these it would not have been that disturbing because the people of India are inured to such nuisance. And there are enough people who have all their worth only in their nuisance value.
But then Sri Ram Sena was godfathered by Muthalik as a bunch of suicide squads ready to carry out deadly attacks. That attracted the attention of Purohit but not the government of India or the state government. This abdication of the state threatens to play greater havoc than the society has seen so far.
People are so taken in by the sophistry of the sangh parivar prattle that they find it difficult to believe the truth, even those who are within the ambit of the right wing groups. To disabuse the gullible like Francois Gautier it is instructive to illustrate from a tale from Nathaniel Hawthorn called Rappachini’s daughter. Dr Rappachini was a botanist and spent his life in his laboratory to develop a ‘culture’ that is highly poisonous. He even experimented on his daughter. She developed the poison in her breath as a result of the experiment. A prospective would be lover came to court her for marriage. As they were sitting for tea a fly flew before them. The daughter exhaled breath and the stream of breath coming out of her mouth killed the fly instantly, the lover was so scared that he ran out of the house! Gautier found it hard to believe that the RSS senior leaders he met were so old and polite and sweet ‘reasoning’ that he could not believe that they would harm even a fly. But the kind of physical culture they develop in youths is not an exercise in inanity. Moreover, you do not need a baton or a gun or a sword to kill a fly.
For SRS the ultimate objective is to strengthen BJP. If that political outfit gets a thumping majority they could ultimately do what many extremists on the right have in their mind, establishing a Hindu rashtra in essence where the minorities would know their place. After the Mangalore attack Muthalik justified by saying: "Whoever has done this has done a goodjob. Girls going to pubs are not acceptable. So, whatever the Sena members did was right. You are highlighting this small incident to malign the BJP government in the state.” He even warned the party that the people would teach them a lesson "if they continue to ignore Hinduism and suppress the youth fighting to retain Hindu culture." What else could you expect him to say, a man who had spent 30 years in RSS, VHP and then was “loaned” to Bajrang Dal! Four years ago he started SRS and was affiliated with Shiv Sena and Uma Bharti factions. All these shifts are proven sangh practice of deflection and tactical manoeuvring to escape from the laws of the land. Or distancing RSS from any activity which has become a public outcry by ascribing it to individuals in one of its many conglomerates and carrying on the work of RSS as usual as if nothing has happened!
Where Muthalik and his accomplices cannot escape the laws the right wing government is always at hand to bail them out. The new BJP government in Bangalor withdrew more than fifty cases in which Muthalik was involved. Most of the cases were about his inciting communal hatred against the Muslim minority in the state especially in Haveri, Shimoga, Belgaum, Gadag, Bijapur, Mandya, Bagalkot, Kodagu, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada and Dakshina Kannada districts. Among the cases is one over the dispute of Baba Budangiri grave where the.SRS wanted to occupy the Muslim shrine and turn it into a Hindu temple. They say it is the Ayodhya of Karnataka. As the BJP came to power at the centre after the demolition of the Babri so it would in Karnataka. Because of his strong posturing on the issue, the party wanted to distance itself from Muthalik. But when the party came to power it withdrew the case of the Chikmaglur shrine. This shows beyond doubt that Muthalik and the BJP have close relationship and the deflecting strategy finally helps them get beyond the reach of the laws.
Muthalik’s influence is very much wide spread in the coastal regions as well as in the border regions like Belgaum. He even joined Shiv Sena but was afraid that the Kanada speaking people in the region and the state would not like him so he left it. Regionalism is a catalyst agent against communalism at times and they know it and circumvent it deftly. During the protest over the Cavery river water dispute Muthalik was involved in the attack on the house of Chief Minister Karunanidhi’s daughter’in Bangalore.
As Babu Bajragi abducted Hindu women who had married Christians or Muslims and brought them back to their parents’ houses and imprisoned them to get them back to the fold, the SRS also followed suit. For example they attacked a bus in which school children were touring Mysore on December 28 2008. The boys and girls belonged to different faiths. There is a deep rooted conspiracy of the sangh parivar to segregate people on religious lines and maintain the standoff because that helps them in their works or what else is their raison d’ etre?
Regarding Purohit praising Muthalik it is under investigation but what is undisputable is SRS cadres present in full strength outside the court when sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur and Purohit were brought to the Nasik court. They carried saffron flags and shouted slogans against the ATS officials.
There is an eerie connection between terrorism and mixed marriages. Gujarat 2002 carnage followed close on the heels of Bajrangi’s kidnappings of women who had married outside the Hindu fold. The Malegaon bomb blast of September 29 2008 was the pretext on which the Hindu Surakhsa Samiti of Dhulia started riots in the first week of October 2008 in and around Dhulia against Muslims as a Muslim youth had married a Hindu girl in Nardana where they had burnt many houses including that of the relatives of the boy. Muthalik has blamed that the girls in the Amnesia pub were with boys from other faiths. He is also suspect in the bomb blast in the court of Hubli where SIMI activists like Safdar Nagori and others were to appear. Thus keeping the public attention spellbound to conversions, mixed marriages and the so called “Islamic terrorism” a much more heinous thing was underway. It was subverting the very democracy and constitution of the country.
Muthalik is called the Togadia of Karnataka or the south. In appearance he could still beguile a naïve person like Francois Gautier as herbivorous and toothless and even gum less oldie. But a man is known by his deeds and association. As the chip of the old block he owes his existence and essence to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. In the aftermath of the Gujarat pogroms against Muslims Parveen Togadia regaling in the lusty cheering of his audience had told the people that they have to leave the path of Mahatma Gandhi for good. He was not only justifying what had happened but also the course of action that VD Savarkar, Moonje and RSS had defined—the organized secretive and physical aggression on the enemy (primarily the Muslims). They did not confront the British or the Portuguese while India was struggling for its freedom. Christians did not become target until the later part of the first decade of the twenty first century. Togadia and Muthalik have originated from the sangh but with a difference. They have a penchant for rabid tirade against the Muslims in a very open offensive manner unlike the sophistry of the sangh echelon. This is true to only an extent because the sarsangh chalak at the time of the demolition of Babri mosque and the anti Muslims riots subsequent to it had justified all this saying that the Muslims had it coming to them! Muthalik has been doing almost like the sangh and Togadia in a copycat manner.
The vandalizing of the pub and the molestation of the girls in Mangalore by the SRS thugs of Muthalik on January 25 2009 has all the hallmarks of the sangh. The Hindus have not been prudish. Muthalik and his cohorts have vividly demonstrated how Hindutva is grafting an alien mores on the indigenous vibrant culture that is famed for care free celebration of sexuality as captured in the sculptures and paintings of Khajuraho, Ajanta, Ellora, and in kamashutra, and in words and deeds recorded in history, arts and literature. Hence the attack on FM Hussein’s paintings including the much vaunted naked Darupadi on August 2008.
The other grafting that is worth note is violence or martial spirit. Hindus have been having a peaceful coexistence with people of different races and religions for ages together. This did not go well with some who were uncomfortable with this setup as they could not have their own axes to grind and so they invented ways and means of doing it. In the present case of attack on the pub SRS targeted the pub because the owner was a new comer to the place and had not coughed up the extortion money they had deemed their birth right. This is much like the sons of the soil extortion of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra which so scared textile industry that they migrated to safer havens. Therefore enforcing a different dress code and using muscle power are foisted upon the Hindus who do not have it atavistically in their blood or tradition. In Sahni’s novel Tamash the Hindu youths are inducted into culture of violence by their training in killing pigs to begin with. Examples of these are: attacks on Churches in Karnatak September 2008, on fashion shows in Moti Mahal Manglor Decemer 20, 2008 and usual run of the mill, manhandling those indulging in Valentine Day celebration. The youths carried out these attacks at the behest of Muthalik.
If it were only these it would not have been that disturbing because the people of India are inured to such nuisance. And there are enough people who have all their worth only in their nuisance value.
But then Sri Ram Sena was godfathered by Muthalik as a bunch of suicide squads ready to carry out deadly attacks. That attracted the attention of Purohit but not the government of India or the state government. This abdication of the state threatens to play greater havoc than the society has seen so far.
People are so taken in by the sophistry of the sangh parivar prattle that they find it difficult to believe the truth, even those who are within the ambit of the right wing groups. To disabuse the gullible like Francois Gautier it is instructive to illustrate from a tale from Nathaniel Hawthorn called Rappachini’s daughter. Dr Rappachini was a botanist and spent his life in his laboratory to develop a ‘culture’ that is highly poisonous. He even experimented on his daughter. She developed the poison in her breath as a result of the experiment. A prospective would be lover came to court her for marriage. As they were sitting for tea a fly flew before them. The daughter exhaled breath and the stream of breath coming out of her mouth killed the fly instantly, the lover was so scared that he ran out of the house! Gautier found it hard to believe that the RSS senior leaders he met were so old and polite and sweet ‘reasoning’ that he could not believe that they would harm even a fly. But the kind of physical culture they develop in youths is not an exercise in inanity. Moreover, you do not need a baton or a gun or a sword to kill a fly.
For SRS the ultimate objective is to strengthen BJP. If that political outfit gets a thumping majority they could ultimately do what many extremists on the right have in their mind, establishing a Hindu rashtra in essence where the minorities would know their place. After the Mangalore attack Muthalik justified by saying: "Whoever has done this has done a goodjob. Girls going to pubs are not acceptable. So, whatever the Sena members did was right. You are highlighting this small incident to malign the BJP government in the state.” He even warned the party that the people would teach them a lesson "if they continue to ignore Hinduism and suppress the youth fighting to retain Hindu culture." What else could you expect him to say, a man who had spent 30 years in RSS, VHP and then was “loaned” to Bajrang Dal! Four years ago he started SRS and was affiliated with Shiv Sena and Uma Bharti factions. All these shifts are proven sangh practice of deflection and tactical manoeuvring to escape from the laws of the land. Or distancing RSS from any activity which has become a public outcry by ascribing it to individuals in one of its many conglomerates and carrying on the work of RSS as usual as if nothing has happened!
Where Muthalik and his accomplices cannot escape the laws the right wing government is always at hand to bail them out. The new BJP government in Bangalor withdrew more than fifty cases in which Muthalik was involved. Most of the cases were about his inciting communal hatred against the Muslim minority in the state especially in Haveri, Shimoga, Belgaum, Gadag, Bijapur, Mandya, Bagalkot, Kodagu, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada and Dakshina Kannada districts. Among the cases is one over the dispute of Baba Budangiri grave where the.SRS wanted to occupy the Muslim shrine and turn it into a Hindu temple. They say it is the Ayodhya of Karnataka. As the BJP came to power at the centre after the demolition of the Babri so it would in Karnataka. Because of his strong posturing on the issue, the party wanted to distance itself from Muthalik. But when the party came to power it withdrew the case of the Chikmaglur shrine. This shows beyond doubt that Muthalik and the BJP have close relationship and the deflecting strategy finally helps them get beyond the reach of the laws.
Muthalik’s influence is very much wide spread in the coastal regions as well as in the border regions like Belgaum. He even joined Shiv Sena but was afraid that the Kanada speaking people in the region and the state would not like him so he left it. Regionalism is a catalyst agent against communalism at times and they know it and circumvent it deftly. During the protest over the Cavery river water dispute Muthalik was involved in the attack on the house of Chief Minister Karunanidhi’s daughter’in Bangalore.
As Babu Bajragi abducted Hindu women who had married Christians or Muslims and brought them back to their parents’ houses and imprisoned them to get them back to the fold, the SRS also followed suit. For example they attacked a bus in which school children were touring Mysore on December 28 2008. The boys and girls belonged to different faiths. There is a deep rooted conspiracy of the sangh parivar to segregate people on religious lines and maintain the standoff because that helps them in their works or what else is their raison d’ etre?
Regarding Purohit praising Muthalik it is under investigation but what is undisputable is SRS cadres present in full strength outside the court when sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur and Purohit were brought to the Nasik court. They carried saffron flags and shouted slogans against the ATS officials.
There is an eerie connection between terrorism and mixed marriages. Gujarat 2002 carnage followed close on the heels of Bajrangi’s kidnappings of women who had married outside the Hindu fold. The Malegaon bomb blast of September 29 2008 was the pretext on which the Hindu Surakhsa Samiti of Dhulia started riots in the first week of October 2008 in and around Dhulia against Muslims as a Muslim youth had married a Hindu girl in Nardana where they had burnt many houses including that of the relatives of the boy. Muthalik has blamed that the girls in the Amnesia pub were with boys from other faiths. He is also suspect in the bomb blast in the court of Hubli where SIMI activists like Safdar Nagori and others were to appear. Thus keeping the public attention spellbound to conversions, mixed marriages and the so called “Islamic terrorism” a much more heinous thing was underway. It was subverting the very democracy and constitution of the country.
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