Terrorists came, saw, and killed. That’s the story in a nutshell. So did they achieve all this without internal support? The answer is NO. Then why is it that we as a nation are so keen on getting Pakistan to admit guilt while doing nothing to catch and/or eliminate the facilitators of the attack at home? That is the question we should be asking our Government in particular and all political parties in general.
How does it matter whether Pakistan admits its complicity or not? How reasonable and sensible is it to expect cooperation from a people who could not be true to their own motherland, leading to the formation of Pakistan. And logically speaking is the guilty ever going to accept his/her crime, more so when the party is Pakistan?
Successive Indian governments have been demanding the extradition of Dawood Ibrahim, Masood Azhar, Mohammad Hafiz and many others. My question is what do we expect to achieve even if we manage to get them to India? We could not hang an Afzal Guru in spite of the highest court of the sentencing him to death. Then is the government telling us they would do so with Dawood and the gang if the highest court of the land was to sentence them to the gallows? I would say, please spin this yarn elsewhere other than India. Maybe you will find a few takers!
For a change, let’s forget Pakistan and stop giving so much importance to a near-bankrupt megalomaniac neighbor with regional aspirations. That country has always maintained: “I don’t care if I lose an eye, but will ensure that India loses both”. So instead of crying for Pakistan’s blood even if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gets a cold, let’s find ways to set our house in order.
For starters, instead of trying to extradite Dawood, let’s go after his networks and cronies in India and finish them. Sitting in Karachi, Dawood will only be as effective in India as his network lets him be. No network, no Dawood in India. And I refuse to believe that our government does not realize this small fact. As a bonus let Pakistan enjoy Dawood, for a man who could not be faithful to his own motherland is never going to be faithful to anyone else.
The problem is if the government guns for Dawood’s network, a whole lot of white ants will start falling out of the woodwork of all political parties, including the one in power at the Center and in Maharashtra. If the government is serious, then finding proof and bring the guilty to book will not be difficult. But no government will even attempt, so all we will do is cry hoarse of Pakistan’s evil intentions and actions.
As I have written in many of my earlier blog posts, our problem is corruption. And all we commons can do is not subscribe to corruption to achieve our goals. The corrupt exist only because they have takers. But will we be willing to do so? There in lies the answer to all our problems. And I don't see us collectively as a nation doing anything to address this issue. Each one of us will individually swear that we are not corrupt, but collectively we are among the most corrupt nations on Earth. That is some achievement, I must say.
All we will do is fight over land, water, religion, caste, creed and many non-issues. And when a country stands so divided internally, then do we really need a Pakistan to destroy us? I would say no. In my opinion Pakistan should look to strengthen its economy, work for the betterment of its people instead of wasting time, money and energy on trying to destroy us. Leave that job to us, we are quiet capable of and willing to self destruct.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Mourning Over, It’s Back To Politics
Mumbai’s dead have barely been laid to rest and for politicians it’s back to business. Forty eight hours and counting, the country’s oldest political party, Congress, is yet to arrive at a consensus candidate to replace the outgoing chief minister in Maharashtra. For a country grappling for answers about the readiness and capability of our governments, central and states, to fight terror and protect its people, this impasse is extremely reassuring.
And more reassuring it must be to see one of its leaders on national television running down his party colleague as being not fit to be chief minister and the adding, as an afterthought, that he is not interested in being chief minister. I guess this leader in question is just trying to apply pressure on the party high command to act quickly and he has nothing but the good of the state and country in mind. It also must just be a matter of small detail that this very leader left a party that he had been with for decades to join the Congress three years ago, all because he was not made Chief Minister then.
But then the people of the state want him to be chief minister, and I am not saying this, but the venerable leader himself. And the leader’s language… very colourful, I must say. His style reminded me of a certain Raghu bhai in the movie Vaastav. For the uninitiated, Raghu bhai was enacted by Sanjay Dutt, who played the role of a gangster in the movie.
And to know that this very party is ruling the country is again very reassuring. But then our other political parties are also making hay while the sun shines. Each party is busy accusing the others of incompetence and concluding with the statement that it will do anything for the country, to protect the sovereignty of the country, and again as an afterthought, to protect the people of the land. Elections are round the corner is just coincidence.
If the Congress and its leaders can conduct business in such an exemplary manner amid all the people anger, then I must say our country is in safe hands. After all, our ancient texts do teach us that everything is predetermined, or a matter of destiny. Hence, we must believe that all those who have been felled by terror bullets and bombs until now were anyways destined to die, so why waste money on providing security to those who are anyways destined to leave their mortal cage at a destined time and place.
When one thinks of how our country has survived and progressed in the more than 60 years after independence, I am led to believe that God does exist. For if not, then there is no way on Earth that we could have survived as one country all these years. And that after we, as a people, including our politicians who are a reflection of our society, have done every possible thing to self-destruct.
At a time when the government should be focussed on securing our country from such attacks, we are witness to the same government using its resources in trying to quell the revolt in its own house. My question: How will a government and a party that are so divided be able to unite a country and protect it from outsiders? But then I seem to be forgetting that it is always about the power and never about the people. So what if on paper it is people power that is believed to make or break a democracy?
And more reassuring it must be to see one of its leaders on national television running down his party colleague as being not fit to be chief minister and the adding, as an afterthought, that he is not interested in being chief minister. I guess this leader in question is just trying to apply pressure on the party high command to act quickly and he has nothing but the good of the state and country in mind. It also must just be a matter of small detail that this very leader left a party that he had been with for decades to join the Congress three years ago, all because he was not made Chief Minister then.
But then the people of the state want him to be chief minister, and I am not saying this, but the venerable leader himself. And the leader’s language… very colourful, I must say. His style reminded me of a certain Raghu bhai in the movie Vaastav. For the uninitiated, Raghu bhai was enacted by Sanjay Dutt, who played the role of a gangster in the movie.
And to know that this very party is ruling the country is again very reassuring. But then our other political parties are also making hay while the sun shines. Each party is busy accusing the others of incompetence and concluding with the statement that it will do anything for the country, to protect the sovereignty of the country, and again as an afterthought, to protect the people of the land. Elections are round the corner is just coincidence.
If the Congress and its leaders can conduct business in such an exemplary manner amid all the people anger, then I must say our country is in safe hands. After all, our ancient texts do teach us that everything is predetermined, or a matter of destiny. Hence, we must believe that all those who have been felled by terror bullets and bombs until now were anyways destined to die, so why waste money on providing security to those who are anyways destined to leave their mortal cage at a destined time and place.
When one thinks of how our country has survived and progressed in the more than 60 years after independence, I am led to believe that God does exist. For if not, then there is no way on Earth that we could have survived as one country all these years. And that after we, as a people, including our politicians who are a reflection of our society, have done every possible thing to self-destruct.
At a time when the government should be focussed on securing our country from such attacks, we are witness to the same government using its resources in trying to quell the revolt in its own house. My question: How will a government and a party that are so divided be able to unite a country and protect it from outsiders? But then I seem to be forgetting that it is always about the power and never about the people. So what if on paper it is people power that is believed to make or break a democracy?
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)