… it seems to be almost a pat sort of response. Bombs went off. People were killed, and maimed. And, a lot of us look upward to the skies and shout bastards…… it is a completely Pavlovian response.
Bastards…..Bastards……it is just that i don’t know who I am calling bastards.
What kind of people will put a bomb in a hospital – even by terrorist standards, the so-called, Indian Mujaheddin is scraping the bottom of the barrel.
And talking of scraping the bottom of the barrel, here is Sushma Swaraj’s response to the blasts:
“The blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad reek of a conspiracy to divert attention from the cash for vote allegations and also to bring back the Muslim vote which the Government has lost due to the nuclear deal,”
as arguments go it is flawed. As logic goes, it is sad. Is a senior member of the opposition accusing the Government of setting off bombs? If so, maybe she shouldn’t be making political capital on dead Indians but should be working with intelligence agencies furnishing proof. We deserve to know if our Government is bombing us.
And, if you want to go down this path of accusation – It can be argued just as effectively that post their dismal performance in Parliament where both the Communists and the BJP’s came out looking like a bunch of churlish chumps – they got either their Naxal friends or their Hindutva friends to plant the bombs. I am not saying that they did. It is just that they benefit more from the blasts than the Government. It is alright for bloggers and commentators and conspiracy theorists to speculate like this – not ministers in waiting. Maybe that is why people like her and Advani will wait for ever.
In contrast, be it on the nuclear deal, the confidence vote, the blasts, or the aftermath — Narendra Modi seems like a statesman. It is scary. Seriously scary.
And, finally wtf can’t the political class have a unified response to terror. Why does Sonia Gandhi go to Ahmedabad and sulk with Narendra Modi. The positions are constitutional – not personal. India and its citizens are greater than your differences. If you can break bread with the left after Nandigram, you can be cordial to Modi. Learn from your counterparts abroad. Atleast in terms of public conduct. All of you. Please.
Yup, rightly said, Harini.
Political leaders should realise that it’s not the personal differences they are settling, but the difference of opinions about the nation’s interest that they are opposing each other for! Atleast at the time of crisis….
But then of course, we wouldn’t really mind if Sonia and Modi didn’t talk to each other for all their lives, but nevertheless took the right steps towards the nation’s interests, right?? 🙂
Harini,
If only our lawmakers had the slightest idea about their responsibility, we would not be in this mess in the first place. I feel like ranting and ranting about this, but I find myself being an immune spectator.
I really want to do something to inspire a better kind of person to enter politics, but I don’t know how!
Don’t even get me started on Sushma Swaraj. I really hope Advani drops her a crumb and gives her something to do in the next govt coz she’s definitely licking the floor hard enough.
@Amruta – hi. we should be grateful for small mercies 🙂 He is the cm, she is the chairperson of the ruling coalition. the least that they can do is to be in the same place when a disaster happens. but, without conversation it is going to be difficult to do too much 🙂
@Pseuduko – if enough of us voted we won’t be in this mess 🙂 if enough of us participated …..:) enter politics !. seriously.
@ Amrita – gosh that means an Advani led government. what a horrible thought . The man cannot organise a piss up in a brewery !! She wasn’t a bad minister. But, she and the entire BJP high command needs to drop this chip on their shoulder on Sonia. Their entire political agenda is skewed (and screwed) by that one fact.
Though i was a tad bit stunned with what Sushma said and why a woman who is a lawyer like her is talking about it – i have one thing to say
it may not be the govt but it could very well be one of its allys that may have some connection with the people like the Indian Mujaheddin. Im talkg abt Owaisis party as there is a lot of talk about an old hyderabad hand in it. there is also the iumls radical splinter groups and the madnis party that many party s court
heres what i think is the state of the nation
http://techntrek.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/blasts-galore/
So would u vote for modi and forget his alleged past if it ever comes to that ?
@Prax – it just could be the naxals. or the hinudtvadi’s. if Owaisi is capable of bombing his country so is Togadia.
Would i vote for Modi – thankfully, we don’t have a presidential system in India. But, if the BJP renounces Hindutva – depending on its other policies I might vote for who ever is leading it…..but, if they gave up Hindutva what will they stand for ?
time will tell but statistically speaking ur in the minority opinion here –
naxals do activities in familiar ground of the naxal beld – nyways they wd never want that much attension cause it is not difficult to hunt them down cause their structure is still like a guerrilla force or a local army.
according to me they are a more verbal tiger bunch, and if they so wanted to bomb it would be a mosque not a public area.
last para was about the h’vadis
they could stand for the bharatiya janta – People of India 😉
@prax – actually not
swaraj has blamed the Govt.
some idiot on the Congress style has asked why only the BJP states after a BJP crisis.
everybody is playing the blame game.
the only reason why one may think of people other than those who have been so far planting bombs – and this ambiguity is we still don’t know who did mumbai or jaipur – is the nature of the bombs. The earlier ones were sophisticated. these are comparatively crude. they did the job .. but they were crude.
On Hindutva – there will be a post at some point of time. If they renounce Hindutva they renounce their USP. The Congress has traditionally occupied the slightly left of centre to the slightly right of centre position. The left are on the left. That leaves the only the space on the Right. The space on the right is either Thathcher/Regan types – monetarist, conservative; Hitler/Mussolin Types – Fascist with ethnic cleansing overtones; the South American types/Franco – Fascist without ethnic cleansing overtones , or the religious types – Khomeni types.
In a federal republic that is India with
– ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural pride having different manifestations in different parts of the nations –
– massive disparities caused by class and caste
– a general ethos of tolerance built over the millenia
all three will be very difficult. They may try, but
– Thatcher and Reganomics will be resisted. Imagine telling the voters we will cut taxes and benefits at the same time. That means all sorts of subsidies from electricity to oil – all go. It may work, 20 years later we may be a stronger or more powerful country but we would have probably broken apart. Also on a more pragmatic level – the Sangh parivar has more in common with the Left on Economic policies, than the Singh Chidambaram combo. That form of right would not – in my opinion – appeal to the Sangh Parivaar.
– Hitler/Mussolini – Very difficult. We as a people thrive on chaos.We hate rules. We despise Order. Imagine a party that only has rules. We are also a mostly peaceful people. Do read Rajmohan Gandhi’s excellent ‘Revenge & Reconcilliation’ on the fabric of Indian ethos. It reinforces your faith in the people 🙂
– The Khomeini style – gosh! you will die defining which Hinduism. The theological debate between the various religious schools will keep them busy for the next few millenia 🙂 if you remember when the Shankaracharya attempted to mediate in the Babri Masjid/Ram Janmabhoomi issue – one of the akhada heads asked the ‘shiviate’ to keep out. seriously.
Which leaves them with Hindutva. Which like most other things in India is nebulous. While i believe that he Sangh would prefer the Hitler/Mussolini model to the Khomeni model – most of them are rationalists, and for them Ram and associated issues are political tools, not religious/cultural issues – they are stymied by the fact that unlike the Germans there is really no composite Indian identity, and Hinduism means different things to different people.
So they are stuck with this quasi National/Cultural pride label called Hindutva. It is the only thing that they have. However vague it is. Letting it go will be very difficult and very brave.
Harini
I have a few career law enforces (i.e. cops) in my family, one in Bangalore who has spent 40 years in the IPS. The general view of law enforcement guys is that pandering to the vote bank has made investigations near impossible in the past, which makes prevention completely impossible. So while Ms Swaraj’s language may be inflammatory and while we are tuned to hearing all politicians with a large dose of incredulity (rightly so too), the point is not far off the mark. It is not about victimising a sub-group of the population but about how behind-the-scenes political wrangling makes it very difficult even to disprove the hypothesis.
hi Shefaly
I completely agree that politics has hampered law enforcement. and, it shouldn’t.
however, that is not what she said. everyone from the RSS to the Shiv Sena to other NDA allies have slammed her statement.
in times like this the national leadership has to show some kind of leadership – instead of this disunited silliness. It is easy for people to get away with murder because Political Leadership doesn’t close ranks in national interest
> Political Leadership doesn’t close ranks in national interest
They used to. Remember the nuclear tests? Remember the Parliament attack?
The same netas behaved differently 10 years ago. Wonder what changed.
have u read about the no true scotsman?
i do agree about her silliness but found ur theory of hindutvavadis a bit silly too ..
i didn’t say that the hindutvadi’s did it….
not at all. nor the naxals.
what i said is that allegations & conspiracy theorries are ok for bloggers and columnists — not leaders..
Accepted
but this is what u said ! though u said it with sarcasm
/it just could be the naxals. or the hinudtvadi’s. if Owaisi is capable of bombing his country so is Togadia./
detonator are not that easy to procure.
have u chkd out the muslimraw blog ?
hi..
nandigram, unabetted growth of naxals, gujjar uprising and several civil actions like these across the country are spontaneous and non-political.
i often say that we are fast-moving towards “a million mutinies”. i am not a doom-sayer. but, chronological facts and effects of completely skewed economic development of the country are good pointers to what is in the offing. 85% of our population is STILL deprived of any benefit of economic development. They have mobile phones, but they don’t have proper opportunities for food, power, water, health, employment and education.
jaipur, bangalore and ahmedabad bombings are CERTAINLY NOT terrorist activities. If terrorists have to do something, they will do something like in Kabul/Afghanistan or will kill hundreds like in Mumbai 2yrs ago.
btw, remember always that congress was the party which actually bred terrorists in punjab, sri lanka and in j&k.
I agree with Shefaly that Ms. Swaraj’s point is not completely off the mark.I might be true, it might not be true… But making such a statement publically, without evidence is completely irresponsible on her part for sure!