Chidu gets a shoe!!!!!

After America’s Ex President Bush was Indian Home Minister Chidambaram’s turn to dodge the shoe. Has the common man’s shoe become the most powerful tool to express public opinion? Is this is a trend that is soon going to become the popular means to display the common man’s angst against the government?

Lathon Ke Bhooth Bathon Se Nahin Manthe. I agree with shoe throwing. Congress has a chance to give its members a clean chit and it is doing so. Tytler who is one of the prime accused in the 1984 riots was recently given a clean chit by the CBI. This has angered the Sikhs and anyone can understand their sentiments. This is not the first time that Congress has tried to cover its tracks. Remember Office of Profit Act? When they asked Jaya Bachan to declare her assets and the same came back to bite the Congress they enacted OOP Act to protect themselves. Why don’t people see this? Now they are giving their own man a route to escape.

This has further got me thinking if we have restricted the definition of being communal only to Hindus & Muslims. What about Christians and Sikhs? Wasn’t Congress being Communal in carrying out Operation Bluestar? Was invasion of the temple the only way to get back law and order in Punjab? What about the riots that ensued after Indira Gandhi’s assassination? How does one justify killing of thousands of people for an act committed by just two people (I.G’s Bodyguards)?

The common man has finally found his voice in action. Cheers to Jarnail Singh!

Preventive Detention and Blasts

News this afternoon: Just days after the communal unrest in Kyathmarana Halli in Mysore, our very famous Pramod Muthalik decided to visit the place. Fortunately he was taken into preventive detention. It’s nice to know that the police force has taken the pre election safety measures seriously.

Later in the evening news channels were reporting blasts in Assam and ULFA is suspected to have its hand in this operation. Again the government had been warned about ULFA’s threats to disrupt peace given that tomorrow is the founding day of the organization. Again the government didn’t take appropriate steps to prevent the attacks.

Here is wishing Gandhi a "SMASHING" birthday!

Gandhi is an icon to many, because of the principles he advocated and also for the role he played in the history of Indian independence. As it is his birthday today we see his name flashed on each and every page of the news papers quoting him. We tend to forget Lal Bahadur Shastri amidst all of Gandhi’s glory. Gandhi has never been my icon yet curiosity made me read," My experiments with truth" and to state it frankly I thought the man was slightly cuckoo in the head. I started reading the book to get an insight into his life and not to know every detail of him trying to control his libido to his 'supposedly' cleaning the toilets. I’m sure the man meant well, but if you go back to the pages where he is describing the day he and his followers went to clean the toilets, he mentions names of individuals, his wife Kasthurba included. Not once does he mention being a part of the whole of the activity, so it’s clear to the reader that he was merely a by-stander. I’d say that was a very cunning way of writing, but heck he is a lawyer and I have to admire him for that. The fact is that the man was being truthful. But how truthful was he really being was left to the reader’s interpretation. Having gained sufficient insight on the man I really couldn’t put him on par with the extremists, who in my opinion were the actual backbone of our freedom struggle. Non violence, honesty, non cooperation are all lessons well learnt. Were they really the reason why we are free today? No, the extremists played a large role and their contribution is always clouded by ‘Gandhi and his band of brothers’.
Let’s fast fwd from 1947 to 2008.
The current scenario of Gandhian principles:
1. Truth: Today people speak the truth only if it is guaranteed that, the “truth” they speak will hurt or cause someone grief.
2. Non violence: Read it as the progressive version of mental trauma/torture. (You don’t need to be physically violent to hurt someone)
3. Non-Cooperation: Yay! No one wants to cooperate when it’s all being done for a good cause.

So now you understand the chaos in our country. All this clearly shows that Gandhian principles have served their purpose well. The above principles are followed to the “T” by our politicians.(no surprises there)
This blog was to be a Gandhi bashing session and I am not done yet. Gandhi is the root to many-sufferings of the common man today, from the Kashmir issue to the Indo-Pak divide. I don’t want the old man cursing me from his grave so I’ll cut him some slack today and round up my bashings in my future posts.

Afzal Guru v. Sarabjit Singh

Two men. One a Pakistani terrorist, convicted in India for an attack on the Parliament and the other an Indian convicted in Pakistan for 4 bomblasts. Both have been sentenced with death. Mercy pleas have been forwarded to respective presidents. Afzal’s sentence has been stayed on the Indian front. Sarabjit on the Pakistani front had his death row extended for a month.

One of the leading political party made a statement, “If Sarabjit hangs so shall Afzal.” Politicians! Do they really believe they have the right to make such a statement? (RIDICULOUS!!!!!) Both countries have convicted the accused, in their respective judicial proceedings. Both have been sentenced. Lets respect the decision and let it take its course.

Today Sarabjit's family came forward stating that they won't plead for clemency, if it means trading Pakistani prisoners in India for Sarabjit. Hats off to his family.