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Tuesday, December 02, 2008 

It's Hip to be Hypocritical

Travelling around the country gives you a window into disparate viewpoints. Train journeys were the best: they afforded the opportunity to get into the viewpoints over an extended period.  While flights are inherently much more snobbish, random snatches of conversation between fellow travelers are still very interesting, since the babudom mostly pretty much insulates me from overtly political viewpoints.

And here, lads and lasses, intellectuals and pack-asses, is mine own struck-by- the-blindingly-obvious conclusion : there ain’t nothing like a good disaster for us to come slavering to the carrion. So this post merely details what was left unsaid by this good babu to the people of Bharat that is India, over the past week or so.

#1 These bastid terrorists! Killing innocents! Targeting foreigners!

 “… eight tracksuit-clad Black September members carrying duffel bags loaded with AK-47 assault rifles, Tokarev pistols, and grenades scaled a two-meter chain-link fence”.

26 years ago.

No, we called them freedom fighters then, they were not targeting us. What was that about sowing a wind ?

#2 Everything about the Pakis rings false. Even their denials are so wishy-washy.

“… when he first heard of these events, the official spokesman of the Ministry for External Affairs said: "The act resulting in this tragedy was senseless and condemnable. It remains so, whatever the disappointments and frustration leading to it. There is no justification for dragging terrorism into the arena of sports. India's support for the Arab cause is well known, as we believe that justice is on their side.”

#3 I bet “they” bloody enjoy it inwardly, regardless of what you hear about them criticizing it in public.

“"Bajrangi: It was a huge pit… You could enter it from one side but you couldn't climb out at the other end… They were all there together…They started clinging to each other… Even while they were dying, they told each other, you die too, … so the number of deaths increased.… There were bodies everywhere… it was a sight to be seen, but it wasn't something to be filmed, in case it got into someone's hands… There was a video-wala there, some mediawala, we set him on fire too…"

Q:How do you feel after you have killed …
Bajrangi: Maza aata hai na, saheb [I enjoy it]… I came back after I killed them then, called up the home minister and went to sleep… I felt like Rana Pratap, that I had done something like Maharana Pratap…I'd heard stories about him, but that day I did what he did myself."

Before you go to town about virgin-dreaming brainwashed terrorists ...here is our home-grown article.

 #4 Having the BJP in power/something draconian like POTA will automatically reduce the terrorism.

 Like having a rabid dog loose might help in combating stray dog menace. Till he bites you, that is. Akshardham. Parliament House. Yawn. IC 814. In fact, to stretch things back, guess who was part of the ruling coalition when somebody exchanged terrorists for darling daughter Rubiya ? Right. As far as POTA goes, its like saying the death penalty reduces crime. It is actually worse, since the death penalty occasionally is used for criminals. POTA has the record of having only ever being misused. BTW, seen Modi’s record in preventing blasts in his state ?

 #5 Goddam the media ! Politicos, insensitive bloody vultures! Empty bombast!

 Err…Everybody has an agenda. Some like Modi were obvious. Some like the Bharti/Indian ad was underplayed, just right.  Whereas this lady, with her howls of “ We won’t stand by. We will fight. Politicians get lost” etc merely made a lot of noise. What do you intend to do, ma’am ? I have so many snide remarks to make, I feel positively Gandhian at not making them. For the record, sir, I support you.

BTW, all those howls about the Taj … a driver in Mumbai summed it up best. “saala koi bhi CST mein marne waalon ko nahiin poocha. Local party thi toh kya ?  unka khoon khoon, hamara khoon coca-cola ?”

#6 Hell. If only this was phoren, it wouldn’t have happened.

Be clear. Your reactions will get better. Your intelligence will need to get a lot, lot, better. There ain’t any way this could have been prevented by policing, however. Read what every security expert the world over says.

#7 This is a national shame. It’s the single biggest thing to have ever hit India.

Uhuh. It is the most publicized, maybe. Single biggest shame ? Check these out, as easily googled.

#  “My appeals to the policemen who were standing nearby and watching only resulted in further beating. At one point the nun slipped away to plead with the police for help but she was dragged back by the mob and her blouse torn,” he said. The nun was gang raped in a nearby building, and he was doused with kerosene by the mob, which threatened to set him on fire.”

#   “With cans of petrol they went round the localities and systematically set fire to Sikh houses, shops and gurudwaras. We were told by the local eye witnesses in all the area we visited, that well know Congress (I) leaders and workers (their names are to be found in Annexure-I) led and directed the arsonists and that local cadres of the Congress (I) identified the Sikh houses and shops. “

#  The taxi drivers say they are being targeted for being northerners.

“We have to ply taxis and get the beatings to fill our stomachs,” says taxi driver Ashok Kumar. Another taxi driver, Anil Kumar, adds, “We haven't come 1500 km to fight with anyone.”

Apart from 100 other such instances.

Seller V, people. The good thing is, that though IPL and such like will get cancelled, there is always Bigg Bossss 2 or something to divert us. Scusez while I head for the remote. 

so this is what it takes to get you out, huh?

What SB said. :)Linking you up ...

SB , TMM : I haven't even got started. This was merely the equivalent of a Twitter feed from a convenient net access point. Read some archives for what happens when I REALLY get going : ) Mess with Barkha, mess with me, says I.

Seriously, all she did was be louder and shriller (== better in the competitive context), doing what everybody else was doing. To single her out with this kind of personal venom ... unfair.

And while we are at it, can we put a TOTAL stop please, pretty please on bended knee please, to " We will not talk about spirit of Mumbai. We will not just move on" chants ? It is even more tiresome than the original "spirit of Mumbai" chants!

--> Is full of the milk of human kindness, really. Take no notice of above.

And you didn't think I wouldn't come by, no?

by the way, been wondering: what are users of Twitter called? Tweats? Twits? Both could lead to a bloody nose in different circles.

Hmm.

awesome post.

Actually one of the sensible given the current ones...tells it as it is!

Please Twitter some more. Jokes apart, give us some more of your travel-induced thoughts. I've been unable to put into words my own responses.

well if you havent even got started, may i say - dont stop?!

WoO :I share that feeling. I mean, seriously... microblogging sounds pretentious, but Twitter ? Eesh.

Chandni : --> Will always associate this name with a shrieking Sribaby, esp. maniacal laugh. (Thanks).

Banno/TMM : I'm lucky, I don't have to prove my patriotism.
(i) Warmongers who want a "surgical strike" against a failed state with nukes-they want us to do a Bush. On our own borders, too. With no oil to be looted, either. etc. etc.

(ii) A media that is trying to cover itself by frantic mudslinging at the poor Armed Forces/Coast Guard/NSG/whoever as substitute for an audit of their own follies.

(iii) Politicos who are spinning their illusions out of this (remember eventually more than half of the US thought Iraq had to do with 9/11 ?) Now somebody is making this out to be result of BJP's freeing Masood, other says Cong (I) is soft on terror, nobody wants a cleaning out of the SYSTEM, which is what counts.

Do you wonder that with all the targets above, I choose to flame the ffing idjits whose reaction to EVERYTHING, whether terrorism or Om Shanti Om, is to create a Facebook group ?

--> Takes a deep breath.
Ae khuda ret ke sehra ko samundar kar de
Ya phir mera dil, paththar kar de.

1.)yes, unfortuantely i have to always prove it. dont know abt banno. so cant say half the things you get away with :)

2.) love that song and those lines in particular

hey ram, to get you to write one or more people have to die these days. what happened to the muse, the desire, the need to write - JLT?

agree with your (as usual, brilliant piece of writing) points. And to think that all this started more than 16yrs back with the breaking of a Mosque that no one really cared about - neither Muslims nor the Hindus; only politicians did. AND it will not stop at this...this is only one in a chain of events that will continue and be repeated in diff places over and over again. Which means the first and biggest of all the criminals is LK Advani.

Orissa, Kerala, Karnataka... what have the poor Christians ever done to raise the ire of the Bajrangis or anyone else??? Is it just blood lust that makes them target diff. groups every now and then??? It's all SO depressing. If the SIMI is banned why not VHP and Bajrang Dal? What will it take to change this country?

....god - i'm going on and on...and waited a few days to comment just so i would not rant... what was the point.

peccavi

P.S.: tis just the quality of your writing that's kept you from being flamed by all the wimmin for siding with Naqvi on the 'lippistik aur pawdar' comment. Me - i was hugely amused to see a pic in the noose-paper of Preity Zinta in pretty colour-coordinated clothes carrying what looked like a fanciful Olympic torch. Turns out it was a candle holder ... harharhar...

peccavi

TMM :Gam zeh yaavor.

Pexter :(a) Seems that way @opportunities to write. What to do, life intrudes.

I disagree @ Advani. A party that got two seats out of 500 odd decides to embrace a fundamentalist agenda to reinvent itself.Starts a Ram Mandir programme.*WINS*. Do you blame it for sticking to a winning formula ?
Ratan Tata decides to shift his factory to Gujarat. It is used by India's biggest mass murderer to flaunt his social acceptability. I hold friend Tata responsible. He had the money, the position, the NEED to slap him down and choose AP,TN, Maharashtra ... SOME place rather than accept this offer. He chose not to. Of course, it is easy to rant at Modi, cos Tata wears a suit and speaks polished English.That paragon of the middle class,India Today, published a "full report" on Orissa wherein Navin Patnaik was lauded as "not your frothing communalist".It is presumably OK to wear Fab India and countenance rabid murder.

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."

I read somewhere that the high voter turnout and NGO-forced publicity of disclosure records has meant a record low in criminals getting elected in the present Dilli assembly.THAT is the kind of activism we need. Not lisptickwaalis saying "let us say no to politicians". Hello ?49-o ? Similarly ill-judged and stupid public rants depress me. It is the system, stupid. Read beyond the lipstick remark: Naqvi said that asking people to boycott the political process *is what the terrorists are doing too* . It is brutally correct.

Oh well, I only get worked up over people dying. Look at you, standing up for wildlife (yawn) ,especially snakes (eeesh!).

i did rant about Modi getting back to power - but in a diff place (TMM's blog). And fully agree with you on Tata going to Gujrat - it's all part of the same rant. Have wondered about it innumerable times including early today. WE have bought into the India Shining BS and are willing to keep in power ANYONE who will get us more 'things', however inessential they may be. And they also, smartly, scratch some deep down insecurities that we may have about the 'OTHERS' which is how they go from 2-500 seats. And as much to blame was the govt. in power which did nothing to stop the demolition of the mosque. Makes them more culpable???

Hmmm...by criminals not getting elected you mean people with police record, i suppose. But what about what the so called non-criminal politicians. Last year we saw the declarations of assets by many of the local politicians. It was scary. My repeated question was HOW. How do they amass the crores and crores of wealth that they are willing to disclose. Why is there never any investigation of pre-politics and post-politics wealth and a calculation of how much they have earned in between to see if "the declared assets are disproportionate to known sources of income" (i love that phrase ;0).

Baah, gaah, tchah - the animals need it more - fewer of them and have no voice or vote. And look who's talking - who tried to save a snake, not knowing it was a poisonous one and just saved from a horrible end by the luck that smiles on drunks, babies and idjits ;).

peccavi

Hellow sir

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