Ever since the Mumbai ATS have arrested Hindu fundamentalists in connection with the Malegaon and Modasa blasts, my friend has been teasing me. And to shield myself, I launch counter attack with a point that some of those Hindu fundamentalists arrested are Brahmins. Well, not just Brahmins, but one among them is ‘Kulkarni’, a surname my ‘teaser friend’ shares.
Kidding apart, the day since anti-terrorist squad have arrested Sameer Kulkarni and Ramesh Upadhyay in Pune and Bhopal, the often-so-vocal (irrespective of the subject) Modi baug Swayamsevaks have been quite tightlipped. I hear same is the situation at Reshim baug, Nagpur. I don’t want to get involved in the moral part of the issue.
The only point I see here is, like my friend, BJP and its ilk won’t ever be as aggressive as they have been on terror. Good for Congress?.
In the office, my Bengali colleague lashes me out on parochial mindset that few Marathis harbour. He resists from straightaway taking on me, but makes it sure that every arguments, irrespective of the topic, ends with a side note on ‘chauvinism’. Well, what can be my reply other than saying, Raj’s beating Biharis and Bhayyas, not Bengalis.
Actually we all know what Raj has been doing is repeat of history already created by his uncle Bal Thackeray. The only difference is: its no more uthao lungi bajao pungi. It’s in stead bajao bhayyas.
Pick up an emotive issue. Distorts the facts. Take on to stalwarts and exhorts the army of workers to play the evil under the name of god. The byte hungry media is there is to help you out. Result: emergence of a new political star.
And by chance if you counter Raj, much like his uncle, the MNS chief starts barking, showing disgust for being challenged and questioned. “Don’t be their advocate”, defiant Raj told me over phone from Ratnagiri, prior to his arrest when I countered him on his lie: “Railways don’t give ads in local dailies”. When I actually presented facts, Raj, lull for a moment, stormed with yet another argument: “As you claim, if the ad has indeed appeared in some local news papers, then Marathi candidates must have applied for it. But we did not see Marathi candidates getting call letters for exam from Railway Recruitment Board. This shows how the railways have been neglecting Marathi youths”. Realizing that he can be exposed, He once again called me up on my cell to advise (with no less than a threatening tone) to “report entire thing properly”.
Ethically we all know he is wrong. Politically, I would say, Raj is correct. Bad for Sena ?.
The meltdown heat is warming up the pan beneath us, thanks to libertians, whose mess up is by and large restricted to US. A stage has yet to come here wherein government would talk about bail-out plans and tax-payers will cry.
Today with each post on this blog, I realize that my penchant for liberalism is growing.
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Contradictions everywhere ?. Or is it cognitive dissonance?.
Kidding apart, the day since anti-terrorist squad have arrested Sameer Kulkarni and Ramesh Upadhyay in Pune and Bhopal, the often-so-vocal (irrespective of the subject) Modi baug Swayamsevaks have been quite tightlipped. I hear same is the situation at Reshim baug, Nagpur. I don’t want to get involved in the moral part of the issue.
The only point I see here is, like my friend, BJP and its ilk won’t ever be as aggressive as they have been on terror. Good for Congress?.
In the office, my Bengali colleague lashes me out on parochial mindset that few Marathis harbour. He resists from straightaway taking on me, but makes it sure that every arguments, irrespective of the topic, ends with a side note on ‘chauvinism’. Well, what can be my reply other than saying, Raj’s beating Biharis and Bhayyas, not Bengalis.
Actually we all know what Raj has been doing is repeat of history already created by his uncle Bal Thackeray. The only difference is: its no more uthao lungi bajao pungi. It’s in stead bajao bhayyas.
Pick up an emotive issue. Distorts the facts. Take on to stalwarts and exhorts the army of workers to play the evil under the name of god. The byte hungry media is there is to help you out. Result: emergence of a new political star.
And by chance if you counter Raj, much like his uncle, the MNS chief starts barking, showing disgust for being challenged and questioned. “Don’t be their advocate”, defiant Raj told me over phone from Ratnagiri, prior to his arrest when I countered him on his lie: “Railways don’t give ads in local dailies”. When I actually presented facts, Raj, lull for a moment, stormed with yet another argument: “As you claim, if the ad has indeed appeared in some local news papers, then Marathi candidates must have applied for it. But we did not see Marathi candidates getting call letters for exam from Railway Recruitment Board. This shows how the railways have been neglecting Marathi youths”. Realizing that he can be exposed, He once again called me up on my cell to advise (with no less than a threatening tone) to “report entire thing properly”.
Ethically we all know he is wrong. Politically, I would say, Raj is correct. Bad for Sena ?.
The meltdown heat is warming up the pan beneath us, thanks to libertians, whose mess up is by and large restricted to US. A stage has yet to come here wherein government would talk about bail-out plans and tax-payers will cry.
Today with each post on this blog, I realize that my penchant for liberalism is growing.
-------------------------------
Contradictions everywhere ?. Or is it cognitive dissonance?.
5 comments:
Hello Yogesh,
Good to know that we share the same thought process (and also a very close name online name (yjoshi) (and yes, few people have complemented me on twitter for your posts recently)
All the three events have been extremely disturbing and i have been following all of them very closely.
Thanks for putting a context to all three.
Each one is going to kill us. some now some later
Regards,
Yogendra Joshi
(beingyogendra.blogspot.com)
Thanks Yogendra and indeed i'm glad to know that persons having resemblance in the name share the thought process too.
warm regards
Like in US where libertains killed the economy, i see you will also kill us one day ;)
joke apart, for a moment, Keep raj out of the controversy and judge the entire situation. I'm sure you would agree to the fact that marathis are indeed being ignored in their own state.
About the hindu terrorism, i had never expected so naive comment of your's. As you have said many a times that immediately after the blast police pick up few people to 'cover their failure', i see, this can also be a possibility in the malegaon case. And bytheway, whatever reports are coming shows that there is little that police have so far got against sadhavi and the militarywallas.
Dear, Elections are round the corner. Congress has been badly attacked on terror issue. And to quell the opposition's critisism, congress indeed wanted a weopen, which can also be a handy shield.
And there can be no better shield than Sadhavi, Kulkarni, Upadhyay and Purohit.
I perfectly agree with your views on terrorism except for one _ the term hindu terrorism. Not because I am staunch hindu but because I believe any act of inland terror needs to be deplored, denounced and discouraged - or rather nipped in the bud. Terror is simply a major crime, a new trend in warfare post cold war phase and needs to be dealt with firmly. My belief is that the only way to deal with terror is to isolate those indulging in it from the society. That can be done by singling them out and not attributing their ills to entire community. Such branding normally has side effect of breeding more terrorists.
On Raj Thackeray issue, you know my views. You said he is replicating his uncle which is true. But there is more to it. When it comes to masses, it is not who is saying what or replicating whom. All they are concerned about are their interests.
In a country like ours, where i dare say we have got a most conceptually corrupted and hyppocratic form of governance that we boast to be democracy, such conflict of interests is bound to repeate. Not that I oppose democracy but because this is a complex democracy where we go by not only numbers but several other factors like religion, caste, language so on and so forth. Resultant, variety of interests are involved and that pollutes the entire system.
The kind of argument that the Thackerays, both Bal and Raj, have been coming up with are not being made for the first time in this country. Remember the beginning of Punjab issue, much before the rise of Bhindrawale. The seeds of Punjab issue were in the fact that the rural Punjabi masses, most of them sikhs, wanted more water and more power. Then their argument was, "After all we have given our lands for Bhakra Nangal why we should be left parched and dark to suffice the need of Haryana and other states who have not paid the price." Similar were their arguments on `sharing the money generated by them in pitched in national kitty to sustain Bihar and likes'' or even load shedding timings in rural and urban punjab. And truely providing electricity to farmers at night and urban industries in daytime is meaningless.
Similar is the argument when it comes to water dispute between Maharashtra, Karnataka , Andhra and TN. Similar is the argument of Assam against Bengalis, Bangladeshis and even Biharis. Similar is the argument of Goa against Biharis. Similar argument is being raised by Haryana against Bihari and Bengali migrants too.
I feel these issues are to stay here unless we propagate for drastic action. Not against any outfit or individual. But the action in constructive manner. Firstly, we need to build a unified nation for which linguistic states have to go. Why should't we have just the geographical provinces? Atleast that would help us get rid of issues like Belgaum or even north east. Secondly, we need to inculcate the ones who think they own India because majority of parliamentarians and policy makers speak their language to respect people speaking other languages too and force the leadership of each region to concentrate on development of their respective region. I feel Laloo, Nitish and likes should do something to improve condition in Bihar before pointing a finger towards anyone else.
Till then, this is bound to continue. And believe me thriving of regional parties is not a bad phenomena always. At times, they do much good for their target audiance than national parties. Think whether expressway would have been built had Binda Thackeray not died on the NH 4 or had Thackeray not suffered delay in returning home from Lonavala after Meenatai died. Or for that matter the development of Andhra and Gujarath without Chandrababu and Modi with all their regional committments and prides. In the present setup I find the national integrity and dream that would never come into reality.
P. K.
@ Samyak, glad to see your comment.
If you carefully read the original post, a realisation will come through that i have never actually commented on moral part of both the issues. All i wanted to say on chauvanism issue was raj has been rightly making good mileage out of the issue. and on hindutva terrorism, let me just say that nobody's actually immune to such acts. The Only point is wether, how and why do we differentiate Muslim and HIndu terrorism. You often subscribe to Swapan Dasgupta's view and call muslim terrorism, "an act of waging war against country" while Hindu terrorism ("if at all they are indeed involved in such ghastly acts", as you have skeptically said), "just a reaction to what is happing in the country". This way, i think, you are holding two contradictory views.
You dont for sure know whether hindus are involved in the blasts. Second, if they are involved, you justify it saying it's a reaction.
For a second, here i agree to latter part of your argument. Yes its a reaction. But then principally yoy would agree that every action has reaction.
And going by your arguement, one has to also accept muslim's arguement of "blasts where muslim extremists' found involved is reaction to Gujrat pogrom".
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