Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Forget Pakistan, Kill The Kasab Within

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.

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?

Sunday, November 30, 2008

A Billion Indias, But Where Is The Indian?

A thousand and three hundred million India we stand, A thousand and three hundred million India we bleed, A thousand and three hundred million India we die, A thousand and three hundred million India divided we fall. That dear friends, is India’s woe.

As I watched for 60 hours the spirit of a city being blasted into submission, I felt a sense of sadness, gloom, and loss as people groped for answers. We kept asking the same question over and over again, Why us? But even in this dark hour what we really wanted to know was Why me? That dear friends, is our problem.

On the map we are a nation, we are India. On the ground, we are a thousand and three hundred million independent nations fighting to establish our right of ownership. And when so many people stand divided, fall we must and fall we will.

We are Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Maharashtrians, Tamilians, Gujarathis, Bengalis, Bhaiyaas, Biharis, Malayalees, Kannadigas, Telegus, Kashmiris…the list is endless. Unfortunately and sadly, we are everything else but Indians. We describe ourselves as all of those and more and as an afterthought, an apology, we add Indian to ourselves. That always sounds like filling a column in a visa form of a foreign nation, and that’s it. We need a nationality for the form…so we are Indian.

We live within our four walls giving a damn to whether our neighbour is dead or alive. We make friends, so that we can name a few when needed, but rarely are friends. We see a person dying on the street, but move ahead because we have more important things to do in live. Isn’t life the most important thing on Earth?

We can remove leaders, change governments, enact new laws, but nothing will change for a government is the reflection of a society. Unless we change as a people our governments will be no different.

For that, we need to shed the Chalta Hai attitude, for that is our problem. Only when we stand for what is right, do away with what is wrong, and stand together to uphold the law can we survive as a nation.

Five of Mumbai’s own are believed to have provided support to the terrorists. What can be more shameful? When our own stab us in the back, why blame Pakistan, the LeT, or any alien for our misery.

Over thousands of years we have paid the price for standing divided. The Mughals, the Portuguese, the French, the Spanish, and the British, how can we forget them, ruled us over the centuries, not because we were incapable of ruling ourselves, but we were incapable of ruling as one.

Our freedom fighters fought for a free India and gave up their lives to set us free. Unfortunately, they set us free for us to chain ourselves again to narrow ideologies, personal gains, and selfish goals. And the results are there for us to see. A democratic nation groaning under the weight of its own abuse of that very democracy that was supposed to set us free.

I have no suggestions, no prescriptions for how to set things right. All I can say is if each one of us looks within, we will find the answer. If we live a life in which we do not hurt others, no one will and can hurt us. Everyone knows this simple fact of life, but then each one of us dismisses it as hogwash. For our collective sake and for the survival of India, I hope we start practicing what we have been taught in schools for decades—Unity in Diversity.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Prayers for Mumbai

Mumbai is facing the deepest of crisis the Island city has ever been witness too. In these times my heart goes out to the people who have been caught in the middle, those who have died and those who have been injured, or ar being held hostage. I offer my condolences to the families who have lost loved ones. To those whose loved ones are missing, I will say do not lose hope.

The whole country is praying for the crisis to end soon and for people to come out of it safely.I pay my homage to the policemen, army personnel, and NSG who have lost thier lives in the line of duty. And I salute all those taking who are putting country before personal safety and fighting the terrorists.

Glod Bless India

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Living In An Upside Down World

Barak Obama’s wife thinks that he would make an extraordinary president. Maybe so, but then which wife would not think so about her husband, more so when the guy already has half a foot into the White House door. My only worry is that when calling her husband extraordinary, I hope she did not have extra ordinary in mind, meaning another in the long line of ordinary presidents that America has had since Nixon.

Closer to home, politicians are divided over the Kashmir issue. Again what is new, that has been the case since 1947. Some won’t tolerate even the thought of an autonomous Kashmir, forget an independent one, some won’t settle for anything less than an independent Kashmir, while a few others would only rest once Kashmir becomes a part of Pakistan. The irony is no one is bothered about what the average Kashmiri wants. Oops shouldn’t have said that for I could be tried for treason.

In the state of Orissa, the followers of two religions are at war, each trying to prove their God’s supremacy. But then what’s new again, we as a country have so many Gods that competition is bound to be intense. I guess if not for us our Gods would have been orphaned for we are the ones who protect them. But isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Who cares for there is only one God that people realize and that is money and with money comes power. And whoever has power is God, right? The rest is all just a matter of detail.

Staying with religion, I have never understood this idea of killing one’s way to heaven. That is the terrorist ideology and terrorists belong to no religion. But then don’t these terrorists need to thank the people whom they target for if not for the hapless victims, how would these killers reach heaven? And the most logical question in my mind is how can these killers hate a class of people so much when they are the ones who supposedly lead them to heaven? Or maybe these terrorists are doing the others a favor by killing them, for who knows the dead may be going to heaven while these terrorists are still roaming the earth in search of their elusive heavens.

Amid all this chaos the Olympics have come and gone and for a change India has three medals to show. Politicians are touting this as the sign of India Rising, business and media houses are busy milking the medals for their own benefit, the Indian Olympic Association is busy feeling offended and offending people with its myopic way of looking at things, and all this when none of the above-mentioned classes have contributed in the success of these sports persons. But again what’s new for we, as a nation, have always been good at hanging on to winners and milking their success for our own gains. And unfortunately for a nation of over a billion people, our success to failure ratio is heavily tilted towards failure, making success a commodity as precious as Gold, and where there is Gold, will diggers be far away?

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Want to Win the War on terror? Act

Has Modi won the war on terror? screamed the main headline on the IBNlive website. Won the war on terror? What on earth are we talking about here, I asked myself. For one, we have seen millions of such wars that have been claimed won by politicians and the police fail to pass the muster in courts of law. And more important: will catching a bunch of people with little thinking ability and who have aligned their loyalties to unknown, unseen masters for the promise of a place in heaven help us win the war on terror?

Are we fighting a war against a faceless, nameless enemy? Yes, we are. What are our chances of winning this war? None I say, as long as there exist a bunch of people who are led to believe by cunning masters that either people are with you or against you. And if people are against you, then they do not deserve to live.

I can pontificate as much as I want but little will come of it. Our leaders, political and religious, have unleashed a Frankenstein monster and now the world will have to wait patiently for this monster to die its natural death. And for that to happen, it will take time and lack of cooperation from people at large. As long as these killers continue to find support among common citizens who sympathize with their cause but do not have the guts to do what these guys are doing, even the best of governments with more than 100% intent and will to eliminate terror will fail.

As long as fundamentalism and the spirit of one-upmanship continue to prevail, rest assured that all of us will keep running the risk of being blown up by a bomb or taken out by a bullet. And no government, military, or police force will be able to protect us beyond a point. We have opened the Pandora’s Box by unleashing the power of collective religion on the people, and now it will be up to us to remove it from the public domain and take it back into our homes where religion should belong, if it has to belong in the first place.

So I would request the media, politicians, the government machinery and people at large to stop flying kites by asking stupid questions such as Has Modi won the war on terror? Sounds nice but both you and I know that it is one big lie, and lying ain’t going to prevent us from being killed by a coward.

What we need first is the acceptance by the common people at large that terror can achieve nothing, and hence, supporting it, tacit or otherwise, is going to achieve nothing other than lives lost. Once these cowards, misguided souls, whatever once chooses to call these killers, realize that they have no support and place to hide, they will be forced to come out in the open, and that’s when we will be able to eliminate terror for good.

Now it is for us to decide if we are ready to stick our neck out for the larger good of mankind, or are we happy sitting in our homes at the end of the day for having survived death by terror? The choice is ours, and blaming the government, police and other people for our miseries is going to get us no where. So friends we can either start by not supporting such ideologies or be resigned to the fact that our life is just a bomb or bullet away. The choice is ours to make and I hope we make a sensible one.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Fighting Crime The India Way

Anees Ibrahim held in Jeddah; breaking news on prime time television news. A couple of news anchors were at it hammer and tongs telling viewers that Anees Ibrahim is the brother of dreaded don and D Company head honcho Dawood Ibrahim. Thanks for blowing the lid off Anees Ibrahim’s identity, I told myself. It is another story that even four-year-olds in the country know all about the Ibrahims and their misdeeds.

Now channels are debating the possibility of the government trying to extradite the Bhai ka bhai (Don’s brother). Suddenly one of the reporters with an air of importance around him says, but India does not have an extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia. O yeah, I said to myself, if we had a treaty Anees would be in Tihar by now.

Trying to get back these Dons is something that I have always failed to understand. What do we achieve by getting them back? We got Dawood’s brother Iqbal Kaskar back from Dubai, and now he is free man contemplating joining politics. The cases against him fell through you see, how very convenient. Don’t we have enough number of criminals in politics that we need to import them too?

We keep on crying hoarse that Pakistan is sheltering the Ibrahims and other criminals. I say, good for them. If someone wants to keep and grow rotten apples, why should we object? Same was the case with Abu Salem; the Dutch court would have sentenced him for 20 years and we would have been better off. But no, we had to spend taxpayer money and get him back. Now in a year’s time, I won’t be surprised to see him sitting in the Lok Sabha. We sure believe in Democracy, I say.

Who knows may be 10 years down the line, we may be a country run by these very Bhais, we might be the biggest exporters of drugs, weapons, women, terror, and Bhais (read Dons) to the rest of the world. Our economy may be growing at about 20% GDP; nothing rakes in more money than terror and drugs, you see.

I know that you may find this post rather pessimistic. Please don’t, for when rape is inevitable, it is better to lie back and enjoy. And once it is done and over with, tell the rapist that he simply wasn’t good enough; just joking. If our leaders continue to be so inept and self-obsessed, and we as a nation so impotent in fighting crime, terror, corruption, and general bad behaviour, enjoying getting raped day after day, dear friends, will be our only option.