Argument

On reading a Reuters report on arrest of two persons in Italy in connection with 26/11, I put this as my gmail and facebook status message:

According to Reuters, 26/11 attackers were GUNMEN.

Obviously I wanted to point out that Reuters desisted from using the word terrorists, which seemed weird. This generated a g-chat argument with a friend who works with Reuters. Below is the transcript.

Friend: kapil

you of all people should not put that up as ur status

dont u recognise the legal issue

me: what is the legal issue?

Friend: even the 9/11 guys were hijackers

not terrorisys

we never label anyone that

kasab hasnt been convicted yet

and no matter how strongly anyone feels, it isnt right to call him that until a court convicts him of that charge

me: that's putting too fine a point on it

Friend: it isnt

reuters has been sued over this internationally before

me: i see

who would sue here?

Let?

F: that isnt the point!!!!

it isnt right to call him that

until proven

can u call shiney a rapist

no, coz he hasnt been convicted yet

me: are, but then how do u call him gunman even?

F: same thumb rule

because he was seen with a gun!!! and he had a gun in his hand

but was it an act of terrorism??? that isnt proven

me: see, i will make distinction between branding kasab before conviction, and describing the attack

agreed, kasab should not be labled anything untill convicted

but when you refer to attack as "by ten gunmen", u doubt if it was act of terrorism

F: why cant you doubt it

just coz one guy storms a army base in us and guns down people

cant that also be an act of terrorism

how do u know what is terrorism and what isnt

how do u know until it is proven so?????

is simple as that

more gunmen means terrorism?? that isnt a valid point

me: there is a point,

but i deem it academic

F: well, no matter how academic, in journalism you cannot afford to be emotional

u hv to go by the thumb rule

me: i am not being emotional, i can even understand kasab's motivations.

all i am saying is if something is blatantly perceptible, lable it

F: i am sorry, "blatantly perceptible" is very subjective

to that 18 year old maid, it is "blatantly obvious" that shiny raped her

is that the sme case with everyone else in the world???

no

so it is wrong to label him that

same thing

Sent at 20:49 on Sunday

me: again i would say: we can spare kasab till the verdict, but the act itself, looking at magnitude, one could call it terrorist attack

now if u permit, i would put this exchange on blog.

F: yeah sure

but if you notice this is consistent reuters policy

me: perhaps

F: not perhaps

it is

me: i dont remember how they covered london metro bombing

F: let me fish out a link for u

but i am confident we didnt lable the people who carried out the attacks as terrorists until proven so

Sent at 20:53 on Sunday

F: http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-36771820081128?sp=true

pl read the following

me: k

F: it mentions the london bombings, madrid and even 9/11

but no where is the word terrorism mentioned in association with them

me: fine

The Monk & The General

1.
In William Dalrymple's Nine Lives, a Tibetan refugee named Passang tells his lifestory.

Passang was born in Tibet 1936. His family kept yaks, as a child he took them to graze high up in the mountains near his village. At some point he was attracted to a monk's calling, he enrolled in a monastery.

While he was training to become a Buddhist monk, Chinese army rolled into Tibet. Thinking that the communists were bent on destroying Buddhism, he, alongwith others, decided to join armed resistance. He gave up the monk's vow of non-violence, picked up a gun, and left the monastery. When the army learnt about him, it reached his house. His mother could not tell them where he was, she was beaten several times. Within a few months she died.

Monks had resolved to fight, but they were no match for the army. One day, the Dalai Lama had to flee to India. Passang followed him. He became a refugee.

At first Indian government tried to resettle the refugees in various parts of the country. Passang was sent to a rehabilitation camp in Karnataka. But after 1962 war with China, Indian government decided to enlist Tibetans in the army, because they would have made good mountain fighters, being from high-altitude Tibet.

Passang joined the Indian army, thinking one day Indians would send him to Tibet, to fight the Chinese. But that never happened. Instead, in 1971, he and other Tibetan soliders were sent to
Bangladesh, to fight the Pakistani army. It tormented him: Pakistanis were not his enemies. He hadn't given up Ahimsa to fight war in Bangladesh. At heart he was still a monk.

He retired from army in 1984. All these years he hated everything Chinese, even the eateries.
But one day he listened to Dalai Lama, who said that hatred was the greatest enemy, not the Chinese.

Passang decided to remove the hatred from his heart. One day he saw an eatery, run by two Chinese-looking women. He went in, loved the food, and later talked to the women. The women told him that they were indeed from China. They fled after Mao's cultural revolution began, went to Honk Kong, Singapore, and ended up in India.

Passang has now returned to monk's life. He lives in Dharmasala.

2.
Passan't Bangladesh connection reminded me of General Shahbeg Singh.

When the turmoil within East Pakistan intensified, and refugees started pouring into west Bengal, Indian government started training Mukti Bahini, the East Pakistani secessionist movement. General Shahbeg Singh, an army officer, played important role in the training of Bahini. Then the war broke out, Pakistani army was encircled, and had to surrender. East Pakistan became independent. Shahbeg was decorated for his role.

But thereafter he faced allegations of financial impropriety. There was inquiry. He eventually quit (or was fired). Perhaps out of the resultant bitterness, he joined the Khalistan movement.
When Bhindranwale took over the Golden Temple, it was Shahbeg who prepared for the unavoidable confrontation with the Indian military. He fortified the temple, sandbagged strategic points, placed machine guns. He trained other terrorists. Therefore, operation Blue Star was not a cakewalk for the Indian army. It had to fight hard, and over 80 Indian soldiers/officers were killed.

Shabeg Singh was killed in the gun battle, along with Bhindranwale.

Page 5 Journalism

Times Of India today reports what Saamana has to say about Sena workers' attack on IBN office (Pg 5). Inset within is a box on "Times View".

The box says: The government's initial response to the vandalism...seems to refreshingly stern. But there needs to be sufficient political will....The government must not stop at acting against the foot soldiers; it needs to take similar deterrent action against the leaders who have instigated the vandals...The message must go out..."

Ah. My view: No one can disagree with you guys. But yesterday you put the first report on the attack on page two, below the fold. Only a small photograph of the vandalised office made the front page. You would have done better to put the original story on page one. Even today you could have put Times View on the front page. The message would have gone out in a better way, no?

Day after attack on IBN-Lokmat offices:


Would the Marathi media now boycott Shiv Sena? Perhaps a total boycott wouldn't be fair to the viewers/readers. I suggest less harsh retribution: newspapers can dump all Sena stories on inner pages, sans photographs, and cramp them in single columns. Channels can cut out the visuals.

This will hurt Sena. Bal Thackeray could afford to snub the media -- Marathi mediamen relished
his put-downs too. Not Uddhav. He can't rely only on his oratory, he needs media badly. Let's starve them of coverage till Sena apologises, and promises never to do this again.


No such boycott will come about, I am pretty sure. For such responses are born of self-pride. After the sell-out during Loksabha and Assembly elections, would there be left any?

He(ro)

After his stint as a child star, he went back to school but dropped out in high school. He became a choreographer before acting in -----. Describing his second avatar at 19, he says, “As a villain, I was called in when there was a rape required. I went from rape to comedy to loser to hero.” But by then Malayalam cinema had accepted him as a hero. By age 26, he’d done 100 films and even got cash registers ringing in Bollywood...

And I regret that so many of his films never got dubbed/remade in Hindi. There was this movie which I once caught on good old DD. (DD used to air regional films with subtitles on Sunday afternoons.) He plays a college professor, who encourages his students to enter into intercollegiate orchestra competition. Minutes before the event, college goons smash up the instrument-set. But he is around; he grabs the mike, and provides background score through finger tapping and breathing and whistling. Superb!

Who is he?

सचिनचे मराठी

सचिन (तेंडुलकरांचा) फार वाईट मराठी बोलतो. साहित्य सहवासमध्ये वाढलेला असूनही. काल आय बी एन लोकमतवर मुलाखत पाहिली. वाक्यामध्ये क्रियापद सोडून बाकी सारे शब्द इंग्रजी. (क्रियापद म्हणजे मराठीत verb, verb म्हणतात ते.) नमुना: "प्रत्येक individual ची match च्या आधी preparation करण्याची style different असते... (तरी या वाक्यात तीन मराठी शब्द आहेत.) याच्यापेक्षा कृपाशंकर सिंग अधिक फ्लूएन्ट मराठी बोलतो. (मधु कोडा प्रकरण उघडकीस आल्यापासून मराठीत काय, हिंदीतही बोलताना दिसत नाही ते सोडा.)

असे का व्हावे बरे? बहुधा बायको अमराठी असल्याचा परिणाम. आता मराठी तरुणांनी मराठी तरुणींशीच लग्न करावे असा फतवा राज ठाकरे यांनी काढावा...

Islamic Republic Of Denial

Nadeem F. Paracha writes in Dawn:

Here we have a university that was attacked by a psychotic suicide bomber who slaughtered and injured dozens of students so he could get his share of hooris in Paradise. The attack was then proudly owned by the Tekrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. And in its wake, we saw enraged students protesting against the Kerry-Lugar act? What a response!

...

But then, some would suggest that in a society like Pakistan, such idiosyncrasies should be swallowed as a norm. And I agree. What else can one expect from a society living in a curiously delusional state of denial, gleefully mistaking it as ‘patriotism’ and ‘concern.’ It seems no amount of proof will ever be enough to dent Pakistanis’ resolve to defend the unsubstantiated, wild theories that they so dearly hold in their rapidly shrinking heads.

Leave religion behind, guys. In the 600 A.D., it was great to have it, as an underpinning for the budding civilization in the deserts of Arabia. Now move on, confine it to prayers and festivals. It's 2009.

Very easy to say this. Nobody would listen.

End Before 2012?

MNS's latest agenda: bullying SBI over recruitment. (Only those domiciled in Maharashtra should be hired, is the demand.)

Shiv Sena's latest agenda: Putting sari on Kareena's bare back.

If this is Uddhav and company's idea of outdoing/upstaging Raj, may god save them. At this rate Sena's obit would be written sooner than 2012 -- when Mumbai corporation elections are due.

Sachin, Lata, and Bachchan

I don't understand why TOI is making celebrities from other walks of life talk about Sachin. Yesterday it was full-page Amitabh Bachchan. Today it is Lata Mangeshkar.

Celebrating Sachin, I can understand. People worship him. Recently he made 175, so this is the season of worship. Fine.

But why Bachchan and Mangeshkar? Firstly, both are not (known to be) cricket experts. Moreover, both are amongst the most boring interviewees in our country. Diplomatic to the core. You ask Amitabh about SRK and he says: he is a competent actor. If asked about Raj Thackeray, he will probably say Raj is a competent politician. And Lataji: once we (she and I) were talking about late O P Nayyar. Who, allegedly, hated her guts. She never sang for him.
She said to me: Oh, people say we had a quarrel, etc, but really there was nothing like that. We were good friends. It's just that I never got to sing for him.
Sure, I said, I believe you.

(Ok, ok. I have spoken to Lata only once, on the day Nayyar passed away. A telephonic talk. But she did say that.)

Competitive

Abu Azmi is the most pitiable guy in the world right now. First he got slapped by an MNS MLA. Now Shiv Sena, annoyed because MNS beat it to beating Azmi, wants to prove that it is the original slapper party. So it threatened to thrash Abu over his remark about Bal Thackeray. MNS goes one up: seeking to highjack Sena's cause, it has said it too idolizes Bal Thackeray, and would not hesitate to beat Azmi again if he dares insult the old man. Of course, MNS's threat sounds more credible at the moment.

In short: Two parties, which between them have lots of beatings and thrashings and breakings to their credit, are competing to bash Azmi.

Abu dear, run...

PS: MNS today apologised to the assembly for the ruckus during the oath-taking. It said there was no question of apologising to Azmi. This is like LeT saying it wants to apologize to the owners of Taj and Trident and Nariman House, but there is no question of apologizing to those who got killed inside these buildings.

Mata Enfield Bullet

From William Dalrymple's `Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India':

...Certainly on my travels around India for this book I found many worlds strangely colliding as the velocity of this process accelerates.

Outside Jodhpur, I visited a shrine and pilgrimage centre that has formed around an Enfield Bullet motorbike. Initially erected as a memorial to its owner, after the latter suffered a fatal crash, bike has now become a centre of pilgrimage, attracting pilgrims, especially devout truck drivers.

प्रति, श्री. कुमार केतकर

प्रति,

श्री. कुमार केतकर,

लोकसत्ता

केतकर साहेब,

आपला दैनिक लोकसत्तामधिल आजचा अबू आझमी यांना झालेल्या मारहाणीविषयीचा अग्रलेख आवडला.

बाकी दैनिकेही अग्रलेख छापतात, परन्तु ते अग्रलेख व्यक्तिमत्वहिन असतात. त्या दैनिकांच्या संपादकांप्रमाणेच. तुम्ही राज ठाकरे व

मनसे यांचा उत्तम समाचार घेतलात.

परन्तु प्रश्न असा पडतो कि राज ठाकरे हे व्यक्तिस्वातन्त्र्य, अहिंसा, लोकशाहीची शिस्त, राज्य

घटनेप्रती बांधिलकी, या गोष्टींना कस्पटासमान मानतात हे लोकसत्ताला याआधी कधी जाणवले नव्हते काय?

आत्तापर्यंत मनसेच्या छोट्या- छोट्या चळवळींना `मनसेचा दणका' असे संबोधून त्या पक्षाला उत्तेजन देण्याचे धोरण आपण का

स्वीकारले होते? राज ठाकरे यांची मनसे-प्रणीत हिंसक घटनांनंतरची सम्भावितासारखी निवेदने आपण छापलीत, तेव्हा त्याच्या जोडीला ठाकरे यांच्या युक्तिवादातील तर्कदुष्टपणावर बोट ठेवणारे लेख आपण का छापले नाहीत बरे?

बहुधा, मनसे हा शिवसेनेच्या मुळावर उठलेला पक्ष असल्याने त्याला उत्तेजन द्यावे असे तुमचे धोरण होते.

आता मनसे हा सवाई शिवसेना होत आहे. यापुढे मनसेचे लाड लोकसत्ता करणार नाही, अशी आशा आहे.

एक वाचक

In Assembly

MNS MLA slaps Abu Azmi on the floor of the assembly -- for taking oath in Hindi. And the peons and clerks in my office -- fellow Maharashtrians -- love it. "It was the right thing to do," is the consensus.

Congrats, Raj.

The incident also reminded me of what happened in East Pakistan assembly several decades ago. Deputy speaker of the house was lynched by rival party's MPs -- on the floor of the office. We are not there, yet.

Vande Mataram: 2

Reacting to the previous post, someone wrote:

I'd like to comment about your point (b). Mind you it's NOT the test of patriotism; but refusing to do it is a test of "unpatriotism" (sic). Take the case of saluting our national flag. If I salute it daily, and you don't find time to salute it even once a year, are you unpatriotic and I'm patriotic? NO. But when you say you'd NEVER salute our national flag, will you be considered patriotic? NO.

My definition of patriotism is this: To refrain from doing something that will harm the nation's interests, and also to refrain from not doing something that will harm the nation's interests. To me, not to pay taxes is unpatriotic. To waste natural resources is unpatriotic. Similarly (to adopt Tom Friedman's argument), to drive a petrol-guzzling SUV seems highly unpatriotic to me, because the money we spend on petrol enriches nations like Saudi Arabia which sponsor militant, intolerant variety of Islam.

When an Indian Muslim refuses to sing Vande Matarm, I get annoyed. I get hurt. There was a time when it even infuriated me. But does it harm nation's interests?

I rest my case.

Vande Mataram

Apropos Vande Mataram controversy:

(a) I don't believe that modern Muslim men and women care about what Deoband guys say about Vande Mataram. Or about anything, for that matter. Don't forget that in the recent times it was A. R. Rahman who set Vande Mataram to a new (and funky) tune (and sang it). Rahman is a devout Muslim. Deobad guys have once denounced the length of Sania Mirza's skirt. Does the good lady (no more single. sad.) care?

(b) Willingness to say Vande Mataram is too easy a test of patriotism. I am sure Madhu Koda sang it when he attended RSS shakhas as a teenager.

(c) Fatwa, as I understand, is not exactly a diktat. It's a ruling on a religion-related query/debate. If tomorrow somebody is to ask a Hindu scholar whether a Dalit can learn Sanskrit, answer has to be no; because that's what scriptures say. Does a Hindu commoner care nowadays about what scriptures say?

(d) There would be some Muslim nuts who would cite Deobad fatwa and refuse to sing Vande Mataram. Why bother about nuts? They are a source of humour.

(e) And if not for the nuts at Deoband, what would keep Uddhav Thackeray, VHP and assorted Hindu nationalists in business?

Between The Elections

In 2004, Ashok Chavan was worth Rs 11 crore. Now he is worth Rs 24 crore. (Says his election-time declaration.) Fair enough, in between he had become Maharashtra CM.

Ever heard of Dorjee Khandu? He is the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh. A Congress guy. During 2004 elections, he declared that he had three wives. His latest bio-data, circulated to media before his swearing-in last month, says that he has FOUR wives.

Ashokrao, eat your heart out.

Postscript: Polygamy is legal in Arunachal Pradesh.

Honest

"If money is not there, I will not be allowed to sit on CM's chair for one day": Madhu Koda, ex-Jharkhand CM. (Indian Express)

My (honest) man, Koda!

IE article also informs us that Koda joined RSS at the age of 12.

Just Woke Up

Anuvab Pai writes in TOI: ...An acquaintance wrote on her facebook wall: "Just woke up." It was early morning, thereby a normal act. Immediately, 20 of her friends commented with a thumbs up, saying they liked the update. One even added, without irony, "Good".

Fun. A couple of days ago, I came across an announcement on facebook which said that XX was in a relationship. That was in the morning. There were several congratulatory messages below it.
By evening, a new announcement: XX is single.