Move on to where Mr Prime Minister?

Remarkable! That's the least one can say about Dr Manmohan Singh's espousal of the wisdom of 'forgive and forget' in connection with the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 which saw over 3,000 people killed in Delhi alone. Speaking at Toronto, after paying homage to the victims of 1985 Kanishka bombing, the PM, while admitting that the anti-Sikh riots should have never happened, advised the Sikh community to "move on"! Dr. Singh's counsel has caused great consternation amongst people and groups who have been crusading for justice for the victims of the 1984 carnage. Wonder where to Dr Singh is asking the victims to move on to? Move on from the hope that the culprits will ever be brought to book? Move on from the fact that 26 years have lapsed and not a single accused has been punished? Move on from the faith that justice, as in the case of Bhopal victims, will ever rise above party politics?
Does the PM realise that he is inadvertently using time as a ruse to deny justice to the Sikhs and in the process giving his political opponents enough reasons to use the "move on" refrain to justify the man slaughter in Godhra? Does it occur to the PM that he is leaving the people of his country with festering sores of rage and hatered forevermore? Does it strike him that in doing so he is creating new communal fissures in an already fragmented society thereby providing a new playing field to politics of religion and region? Why is the PM trivialising the pain and loss of the victims of 1984 by asking them to compromise on justice? The answers perhaps will come - politically correct, insipid and worthless.
Going by the the PM's logic even the families of Kanishka bombing victims should have been advised to move on, but guess, the suggestion was witheld considering it was the Canadian government's head that was on the anvil.
Strange country and stranger still it's leaders who value so little that which means so much to their people. However,it's indeed the time to move on Dr Singh from being the representative of a political party to being the PM of the people of India.

God, sex and surrogacy

Whoa!Hold the horses Rev. Mar Varkey Vithayathil! For Christ's sake don't decry scientific evolution to uphold a lopsided moral injunction. The Assisted Reproductive Technologies Bill (RTB), 2010, which intends to legalise surrogacy, has evidently send shivers down the spine of the Archbishop of the Syro Malabar Church (Catholic). Cardinal Vithayathil has accorded the Bill apocalyptic proportions with regard to moral and social fabric of our nation.
He views surrogacy as a direct challenge to God Almighty's exclusive right over procreation - "We shall not play God and opt for fabrications of humans at our own designs." Good Lord, Archbishop you make surrogacy sound akin to a factory for manufacturing synthetic beings designed to resemble humans. It's still the fusion of God given good old sperm and ova, isn't it? What is it that is worrying Rev. Vithayathil? The absence of sex to facilitate the fusion or the borrowed womb wherein the embryo is finally lodged? The former seems to be of paramount concern to the Archbishop. "One can have a child without any relation to sex and one can have sex without any relation to procreation. This separation will play havoc with biological system and create a permissive society." Ahem! If this be the case then surrogacy sure is sounding the death knell of sex and procreation just as condoms are jeoperdising the perpetuation of human race! 'Sex for procreation' is a very, very striking spiritual slogan but it's practical application is negligible amongst the majority of population. 'As far as procreation through sex only' is concerned, wonder what solution Cardinal Vithayathil has for couples who for some biological snags are unable to beget children according to the process legitimised by the Lord? "To have a child one cannot take recourse to any means and technology possible," asserts the Cardinal. Hmmmm... well this poses a serious question on the divine legitimacy of life saving advances made in the field of medical science - organ transplant, reconstructive surgery, blood tranfusion, artificial replacement of joints etc.- as most involve extensive use of means and technology developed by man to alter an undesirable God given condition.
As far as dangers of surrogacy encouraging sexual permisiveness are concerned, I am unable to find a plausible explanation for the alarm, until there is be an oblique reference to homosexual couples. If this be the case, the assertion is no less amusing. Homosexual couples might use surrogacy to have a child but it certainly will not tempt people to go gay!
The Church's concern over the RTB dealing a blow to the institution of marriage and concept of family ties, is, however, not altogather misfounded. But it should be borne in mind that the use or abuse of best human advancements rests solely with human conscience. Unlike Cardinal Vithayathil I don't label such attempts as "playing God with science" but moving closer to 'God through science'.

Injustice upheld

I am ashamed, embarrassed and bewildered at the blatant, government abetted mockery of the Indian judicial system. The lapse of 25 long years has, perhaps, reduced the status of the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy to inconsequential stastics and numbers in the eyes of the Indian Government. The local court's verdict awarding the 7 accused a jail term of 2 years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh for the world's worst industrial disaster, which killed 15,134 and maimed 5.7 lakh people, was a stinging slap on the faces of those who had hoped that justice delayed wouldn't translate into justice denied.
As skeletons in the government cupboard begin to rattle, the fact that justice has been violated wilfully by those occupying the highest echelons of power, leaves one thunderstruck. PM Narasimha Rao's government's express orders to the CBI not to press for the extradition of Warren Anderson, CEO of the Union Carbide (UC), who was bailed out within six hours of his arrest and flown out of India, the paltry compensation of Rs 705 crore, reached after much haggling over the number of actual victims, the rejection of victms' plea to the welfare commissioner of Bhopal for payment of compensation as per the value of dollar in 1989... seems a concerted and premeditated effort to ensure that justice was never done to the dead as well as the survivors of this disaster.
The newspapers are replete with grotesque pictures of the 1984 tragedy, whose proportion has been described akin to a 'chemical warfare' by veteran photographer Raghu Rai in a leading English daily. Going by the reports, death came to the more fortunate. For most of the survivors, afflicted with indescribable physical deformities, life became a perfect hell. Birth defects, resulting from the methyl isocyanate leakage, continue till this day serving as a callous reminder of the havoc wreaked by the carelessness of UCL officials on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984.
Ninety-year-old Warren Anderson lives in plush mansion in the Swish Long Island neighbourhood of Bridegehampton, seccure that he will never be called to face justice in a human court of law. The United States only worry is that the Bhopal case might undo it's carefully nurtured ties with India. So, the accused is safe and sound in his country and the victims remain victims forever in their land, justice never died a more ignominous death.

This too is terrorism like 26/11

It's confusion worst confounded. If 26/11 was an act of terrorism then what do we term the Maoist derailment of Howrah-Mumbai Gnaneswari Express on May 28, 2010? More than 200 passengers severely injured and over a 100 dead. The Nation refuses to forget 26/11 or forgive the accused. Why is the death of civilians aboard the Gnaneswari Express eliciting such a muted expression of rage from the Nation?
The perpetrators of 26/11 came from across the border, indoctrinated to believe that they were fighting a just war for Allah. In short they were foreigners on Indian soil with scant understanding of the country's social, cultural, political or religious ethos. They killed with impunity and without regret. What about those who plotted the derailment of Gnaneswari Express? Our very own countrymen broadly and popularly known as Maoists/Naxalites understood to be fighting for the rights of the adivasis. So theirs was not a brainwashed act of violence against a foreign people. It was more cold-blooded and calculated an assault against those they knew to be innocent. Their crime, therefore, is graver and more reprehensible.
The government's sanctimonious talks about not using the military against it's own people sound so hollow as buses are blown up and hospitals looted by Maoists with an aim to have their demands met through terror. If what Kasab did decrees that he be hanged till death, then the massacre by Maoists, in the name of social justice, demands no less.

Knaeda gone bonkers!

Ha!Ha! Ha!... O! Boy! Haven't laughed so much and so loud in a long time. Kudos to the Canadian government for playing the moral jester to perfection. Lt Gen (rtd) Amrik Bahia is certainly not tickled by the buffonery but to an impartial observer the clown just gave a winning performance.
Though Lt Gen Bahia isn't the first armed force personnel from India to be subjected to Canadian government's ethic-antics, his case has certainly caught the media's eye. Lt Gen Bahia was denied visa by the Government of Canada on the grounds of his having served in Kashmir where, according to some international human rights organizations, there were grave issues regarding violations of human rights by the Armed Forces of India. Well, well, the art of collective condemnation has been refined to a nauseating perfection here. Thus going by the Canadian government's logic any Indian in uniform, having been posted in Kashmir by the Government of India, is not eligible for a Canadian visa on assumed charges of human rights violation by the person in question.
The assumption is hilarious and grave at the same time. It indirectly points a finger at the Government of India for orchestrating human rights violation in the Valley. If so, then no person who represents the Government of India in any capacity should be allowed within the borders of Canada.
This certainly is not an attempt to defend or deny human rights violation in J and K, but is rather an effort to highlight the Canadian government's tomfoolery in denying visas to Armed Force personnel of India who have served in Kashmir. Personnel belonging to the Armed Forces of India, many of them like Let Gen Bahia, highly decorated, serve in a particular state of their country not on their own volition but according to stringent guidelines that regulate their postings alongwith manforce and strategic requirement in the said region. The Government of India has an unequivocal say in all matters pertaining to the Armed Forces which includes the desired strength of armed personnel in a particular geographical location. Therefore, if a posting in Kashmir marks India's men in uniform as non-eligible for Canadian visa, then the Government of India needs to be put in the dock too.
As the Canadian government is bursting with righteous indignation at human rights violation by armed forces, how about pulling the visa leash on powerful neighbours like the United States of America. Remember the Abu Gharib prison and Guatanamo Bay detention camp? Remember the rape, torture and abuse of Iraqi and Afghani prisoners? By the way the act of war on Iraq itself was the most blatant human rights violation of all times, so isn't Uncle Sam just ripe for a rap on the knuckle the kind Let Gen Bahia has received from the Canadian government for serving in Kashmir?
Amusing moral gymnastic isn't it, from the beginning to the end.

Forever young

We are and will be forevermore, hopelessly and compulsively obsessed with youth and immortality. Wrinkle-free and an anti-aging existence is man's most cherished, yet, till date, most elusive desire. However, like celebrated scientist Albert Einstein, I too firmly believe that "God doesn't play dice with the universe", hence the scientific communities' consistent endeavours towards arresting the aging process and finding key to longevity, will bear fruits sooner or later. The resultant social, religious and ofcourse the visual impact of age-arrest will be phenomenal, to say the least.
Anti-aging ofcourse doesn't translate into immortality, however, it does negate the possibility of age associated physical degeneration as the cause of the final end. This does rob death of epitaphs like 'unavoidable' and the 'only reality'. Once immortality, in terms of age-freeze, becomes a reality, the society is bound to acquire a more competitive edge with the survival of the fittest emerging as the new moral code. A forever young world will compete for a share in the social and economic pie. The resultant struggle, as I visualise it, will be rather fearsome, specially in the face of accompanying population explosion.
On the family front spritely and young parents will be free from the handicap of old age. Good news no doubt. The family circle will expand to become a mini community geared towards creating greater visibility and guarding the interests of its members on the social front, thereby creating a second tier of struggle for existence.
There is ofcourse the possibility of humanity taking it a bit easy in life seccure in the knowledge that there is always the time to catch up later. The urgency of time running out in terms of age, will certainly come down several notches and might have man breathing easy.
The elixir of youth once discovered or decoded or devised will cause a major upheaval in the religious realm. The span between birth and death will become largely incalculable. Natural disasters, incurable diseases or physical harm might be the only factors which could cut a person's earthly sojourn short. Youth induced immortality might make the fear of hell fire or rebirth seem a remote possibility. With death induced terror receding, God's hold on man's life-strings will loosen considerably. The Almighty might not seem all that potent or menacing. Religious texts seeking obeisance by playing on man's inherent fear of death, will find few followers. A spiritual awakening will gain ascendancy over ritual and textual strictures or it might spell the beginning of a new age of reason where man uses intellect to figure out the cause and purpose of his creation.
On a philosophical note, age-freeze is a welcome idea as it spares us the infirmities of old age, however immortality seems so not worth it. Living on and on and on, without a purpose other than mere existence is as scary as death. An infinite life is not necessarily a fulfilling life. And it is quite likely that man might well become immortality weary sooner than later.

Getting ridiculous in the name of religion

Phew!They never call it quits!Self-lampooning has become a cherished pastime with the pundits of various religious faiths. In fact the fatwa by clerics of Darul Uloom Deoband decreeing a woman's earning as haram for a Muslim family, in keeping with the Sharia, was a real rib-tickler. Now, now, no need to breathe down my neck. All ye high priests are just getting what you've been asking for-sniggers and scorn.
The Muslim intelligentia is quoting extensively from the Sunnah (deeds, saying and life of Prophet Muhammad) to prove how the fatwa is against the spirit of Islam. Others have been citing the example of conservative Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, which do not bar women from working, to oppose the decree. My advice: People don't bring the Prophet and Islam into this rather trivial and ridiculous inference. How about using simple human reasoning to turn the fatwa on it's head.
Let's begin with the defination of religion. According to the New Oxford Dictionary religion is the 'belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or Gods'. The worship has incorporated various moral, spiritual and social codes, outlined by different religions, for a noble and vice-free living considered integral to establishing a connect with the 'superhuman power'. The moral and social codes have witnessed a great flux down the ages with the evolution of human society. What was considered acceptable then is taboo now and what is prohibited now was a norm then.
Social codes of most societies, until a few centuries back, restricted women to the role of homemakers and child bearers. Men were the born bread winners. This segregation of roles, had little to do with religion as we understand it. It was more a matter of conveniece keeping in mind the peculiar social requirements of the time. Moreover, it facilitated establishing male hegemony in patriachal societies. Looking after parents and shouldering the economic responsibilities was exclusively a sons's calling.
The 21st century has witnessed a paradigm shift in the social evolution of women from the kitchen to the boardroom. Pro-creation is no longer the only highpoint of a woman's life. This social metamorphosis of women is a 21st century phenomenon which might have been altogether unacceptable and largely unrequired in the Arabia of nineth century when the above decree might have sounded saner. This social shift is hardly indicative of a lack of belief in God or of moral depravity.
If a woman is earning by just means how does her money become haram for her family vis-a-vis that earned by her husband, son or brother? The explanation, according to fatwa framers lies in Sharia prohibiting the proximity of men and women in the workplace. The underlying insinuation of this prohibition is shockingly disrepectful to both men and women living in civilized societies. No doubt that concern regarding the chastity of women has bordered on the obsessive in many religions, however, this one takes the cake. Women and men sharing workplace are not looking for means to commit the Cardinal Sin. If drawing a screen between men and women is the only means of protecting a woman's virtue, then there is not much that separates us from animals in this context at least. Anyhow if it is men whom women need to be constantly protected against then why not keep a closer eye on the likely culprit than the victim? Why penalise the latter for the sins of the former?
I am not giving a short shrift to moral codes of a society but am questioning the selective use of these codes to short-change women in the name of religion and ludicrously enough in the name of God.

Bastard is a slur on motherhood

The skeptics call it a new age gimmick, but honestly I love all the hype and hoopla surrounding it! Of all the commercial ploys in the world this one I submit to with great alacrity. I love my mother and being the rather expressive kinds, make sure to remind her of it at regular intervals. However, the whole idea of one day dedicated solely to going all mushy about your mom is so worth it. She might call it childish on the face of it but will be sniffing into her handkerchief when nobody's looking.
As I hip hip hurray my mother's remarkable love, patience, support, sacrifice and extraordinary culinary skills today, I feel a pressing need to be true to the spirit of the day and pay a tribute to mums the world over. So, I resolve to purge my vocabulary of the expressions 'illegitimate' and 'bastard' as used to describe or abuse those born of a woman out of wedlock. The expressions are a slur on the dignity and self-respect of every mother. While I have nothing against the institution of marriage and am a proponent of humanism rather than feminism, the above expressions are deterimental to woman empowerment.
Cursing the womb that is the cradle of mankind for lack of male willingness to shoulder the responsibilities of fatherhood, for varying reasons, tantamounts to blatantly negating social equality between the sexes. A woman who loves and nurtures her offspring, doesn't need a male endorsement to lend legitimacy to her child.
Mexican actor Barbara Mori observed in an interview that "In India a child born out of wedlock is a problem, but in my country you would find a number of single mothers. I have a child though I am not married, which is not a problem for me." The question, however, is not of the problem of social acceptance of single mothers alone, but the centuries of deep prejudice against children born of such mothers. Language mirrors the cultural, social and economic evolution of a people. Thus on the social front the advertant or inadvertant use of 'bastard' and 'illegitimate child', reeks of disrepect and bias against women who don't enjoy matrimonial permissibility to bear children.
From the so called progressive to orthodox societies, this language skew against women is very pronounced. I would rather that every woman earns for herself a financial and social stature which equips her to nurture well the life she desires to bring forth into this world. On no account do I mean to dismiss men and fathers as inconsequential, all I seek is a true tribute to mothers who bear children they love, never 'bastards' or illegitimate offsprings'.

Hang him not

This is not in defence of Kasab. Without use of hyperboles, I simply wish to state that what Kasab and his nine accomplices did is unforgivable, both by humans and from my understanding of the Quran, by Allah, in whose name the blood of innocent was shed without moral qualm or mercy. I feel an insupressable surge of rage, resentment and vengeance every time 26/11 is mentioned. Yet,I do not want Kasab to be hanged.
Before I am accused of sedition, specially by those whose families were torn assunder on the night of 26/11, I beg for a hearing.
I want Kasab to suffer enough to plead for death. I want to seee him convulsing with repentance. I want to let the horror of what he did render him sleepless forevermore. Yet I do not want him hanged.
The nine others who slaughtered people at CST, Oberoi Trident, Taj Mahal Palace and Towers, Leopold Cafe and Nariman point are dead. We hang Kasab and he too dies. What's the difference? The nine others died believing, perhaps, in the righteousness of their offensive. Hang Kasab and he too will die a believer in his cause. Any apparent demonstartion of regret might be for fear of death rather than horror at the deed committed. His attempts at an apology might be noose inspired rather than heartfelt.
The LeT, according to newspapaper reports, brainwashed and de-sensitised this band of 10 terrorists effectively enough for them to declare a mindless act of war on an unaware but powerful nation and still believe that they would make good their escape at the end of it all. The LeT did a good job - nine dead one living. Hang Kasab and LeT's victory is complete. One more brainwashed and delusional religious fanatic gone, makes no difference to their swelling ranks.
Hanging Kasab is a watered down version of vengeance that we seek on perpetrators of terror. Keep him alive and breathing. Re-introduce him to his faith. Make it know to him that the Quran damns to perdition those who shed the blood of the innocent. Let scholars of Islam prove to him beyond doubt that he has wronged Allah. Let him answer the whys and experience the wrath of the families whose lives he destroyed. Make him realise the inhuman nature of his deed. In other words re-sensitise him.
It might be easier said than done. But until we undo LeT's handiwork and have Kasab cry for forgivesness from those whom he killed without compunction, our vendetta will be incomplete. Once the brainwash is reversed, Kasab's life, I can say with conviction, will become a living hell and then it will best to deny him a premature release from it.

Reality is a dirty business for the West

It was Agent Seeley Booth, of the popular American tele show Bones, who motivated me to watch Slumdog Millionaire. Actually Booth's brother Jared wants to go India exploring. "India?" questions his lovely partner Dr Temperance Brennan. "Yeah, India you know Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire...'" explains Booth with a perfunctory wave of hand. So, despite being a reluctant movie watcher, I just couldn't bypass a dekko at that which had at long last elbowed out the fakirs, snake charmers, elephants, flying carpets of Hindustan from the western mind.
Eight Academy Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globes-the movie's caught and held the western imagination. I am no authority to comment on matters of adptation, screenplay, direction. Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Anil Kapoor, Irfan Khan came across as consummate actors. But NO Agent Booth this isn't the India your brothers keen on exploring. The slums, the dirt, the squalor, the corruption and crime are not the defining landmarks of this country.
Poor Mr Bachchan drew a great deal of flak for panning the movie in his blog. He expressed his resentment at the projection of "India as [a] third-world, dirty, underbelly developing nation and caus[ing]pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations." He was accused of suffering from the sour grape syndrome. A white man had realised what brown men dreamed of but failed to achieve - make a movie on an Indian theme, with Indian artistes and garner global recognition. Some of the sites went into an overdrove and charged Indian directors with churning out flimsy stuff, leaving the real issues to be screened by white men. Bachchan sahib was in fact labelled a 'no talent' riling against Danny Boyle's success.
I am not here to defend Mr Bachchan, he is still good at delivering knockout punches to his detractors, both homegrown and global. I am here to request the creative white junta to open their creative white eyes wide and not limit the identity of a nation to a movie, no matter how acclaimed. If it is the true picture that the western man finds exotic, well the fact remains that Slumdog Millionaire had a liberal dose of fluf to prop it up.
Regarding the charges of Indian cinema makers pandering to flimsy middle-class fanatsies, well somebody's certainly short on information about socially relevant cinema being produced in Hindi as well as regional languages. And come to think of it, reality is certainly not the hallmark of majority of American and western movies that light up global screens. Movies are a creative medium of entertainment and as it is with every creative medium it can be moulded to make you laugh, cry, inform, make a social statement or simply bore you to sleep. However, these are not works of academic authority whose veracity is unimpeachable. So, as Gurinder Chadha said "Slumdog Millionaire is a great film but the fact that it showed India in a way that the West wants to see India, in why that film was accepted by so many people."
The danger here is of the western mind falling prey to a parochial, self-cultivated, stereotypical image of a very vibrant nation. Reality doesn't mean poverty and violence alone, reality can deal with manifold issues, of which there is no derth in any nation and most certainly not in India.
Therefore, even as I watched, with great indulgence, Anil Kapoor and Danny Boyle's uninhibited expression of pleasure at the Academy Awards I felt a great protective surge for my motherland which had just acquired a new tattered, muddy and most foul identity in the western mind.

Man created God in his image and...

God, many believe,created man in his own image. Well, God is not there with me to testify the fact and the results will have me believe that he made a hash of it. If this was not worrisome enough Adam's progeny decided to give their Creator stiff competition and voila! There it was, a God created in man's image. And in the art of duplication, man outsmarted God. So it happened that the Creator of the earth, heavens, galaxies without whose express will not a leave moves, became angry, wrathful, vengeful, a sucker for sycophancy, a sexist, a racist and a secret service chief whose highly effective team of angels kept a keen eye on the acts of ommission and commision of mankind, in order to nail the defaulters with incontrovertible proof as and when required.
Wish the anthropomorphic evolution of the Almighty had stopped at this. But it was not to be so. God acquired blond or black hair, blue or black eyes, dark or fair skin in keeping with the geogrphical location of his creators. Thus it came to pass that the Lord acquired a distinct European and Asian identity. The one God had begun dividing.
Then came the final nail in the coffin. Scriptures have it that God prefered certain people over others and entered into a Covenant with them. He gave them Commandments the adherence to which would ensure them permanent residence in God's coveted heavenly abode in the hereafter. This policy of divide and rule sounded the gun for mankind's race to be 'the' darling of their Father in Heaven. So were born People of the Book. All claiming to be God's chosen ones. Each claiming to be the sole proprietor of the 'truth' revealed by Him through Ezra, Elijah, Jesus, Muhammed.... Each accusing the other of reneging on the pact with God and of alone honouring the Divine commandments in toto. The one God further divided into many.
When words alone failed to win them supporters and establish their hegemony over the believers and the non-believers, out came the swords. The many Gods acquired henchmen. Gang war ensued. They killed, maimed, threatened, bribed, coerced people to acknowledge that their Master was the original while others were but cheap imitations. Nations were torn assunder and mass-scale purging of the 'opposed' ensued. They accused one of being 'Christ killers' and exterminated six million of them. Then the remaining two crossed swords over charges of messing with the word of God to suit convenience, maligning their respective prophets, blasphemy... the bodies continued to pile. The transformation was complete, God had become Man.The division was complete, the one God had become many Man-Gods. So, each Man-God, fights on for the right to be 'the' God. His loyal followers use guns, bullets, bombs, besides brutal physical repression to silence opposition and to drive fear into the hearts of the non-believers. So an inseccure Man-God, utterly consumed by his passion to be the one and only, creates an army of loyalists, who kill and get killed to maintain the sanctity of His turf.
Blood continues to flow freely as man fights the never-ending battles of the Gods whom he had fashioned in his image.

Might alone cannot make it right

America's 'smoking out of terrorists' from their infernal 'holes' has come a long way since September 11, 2001 attacks. Osama bin Laden, the supposed mastermind behind the attack on America, is still at large. The carpet bombing of Afghanistan has blasted any goodwill that America might have enjoyed in this war torn historical land.
While civilian casualities might be dismissed as 'collateral damage' by American power brokers in smartly tailored suits and polished shoes, the fact remains that the absence of reconstruction programmes in Afghanistan is seeing the civilian population siding with the lesser of the two evils-the mujahideen.
Greg Mortenson, an American, who has built numerous schools for the various tribes inhabiting the Karakoram mountains of Pakistan, feels that the war on terror has compromised the future of the general population severely. In absence of schools parents turn to madarsas, of which there is no derth, to educate their wards. The madarsas also ensure that their children are clothed and fed. The end product is young men indoctrinated in parochial, violent outlook of their tutors. Mr Mortenson talks about his meeting with Sadhar Khan, the commadhan of Badakshan (Afghanistan), in his book 'Three Cups of Tea.' Khan, a local leader who struggled against the Soviets and the Taliban during the Cold War era, wanted Mr Mortenson to build schools for boys and girls in the region to ensure that the children at least got primary education. According to Khan this was the only way they could make the "sacrifices" of those who fought the "Russians and the Taliban, worthwhile."
Khan's voice of reason and Cold War lessons seems to be lost on the USA. The proven corrupt and weak Hamid Karzai regime backed by America is only further villyfying Uncle Sam in the eyes of the general population of Afghanistan.
The long drawn honeymoon between the USA and Pakistan has began to sour. A spate of corrupt leaders with political astigmatism have failed to channelise the dollars for development programmes. The gargantuan defence expenditure coupled with accumulation of personal wealth, by those occupying the highest echelons of power, has seen little or no development in the spheres of health, education, housing, agriculture, land-reform and infrastructure development. The general public is disillusioned with its leaders and the USA whom it views as a bully nation arm twisting Pakistan into doing it's bidding. Besides it is no secret that the mujahideen are not lacking for sympathisers within the rank and file of the Pakistan Army and the ISI, again a Cold War legacy. Where does this leave Pakistan as a nation? Says writer and filmmaker Tariq Ali "According to health workers, between twenty-five to thirty thousand women lose their lives each year because Pakistan lacks basic social infrastructure. How is one supposed to begin to put a stop to all this?" Mr Ali further assersts that the voice of extremism has gained ascendancy in the country as government has all but forsaken the welfare measures for its citizens.
Coming closer home to Kashmir. The beautiful valley has been bullet ridden since Maharaja Hari Singh signed over his kingdom, with a majority of Muslim population, to India. Mr Jinnah cried foul and a tug-of-war for the control of the valley was set into motion. Pakistan army and the mujahideen, along with homegrown separatist organisations like Harakat ul-Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Lashkar-e-Taiba, have torn asunder the social and cultural fabric of the valley. This and the excesses by the Indian Army on the civilian population have lead the people here to be caught between the devil and the deep sea. The young in the valley want jobs and a dignified living. The failure of the government to fulfill these aspirations and the human right violations by the Army finds vent in anti-India rehtoric. An English news channel while covering the socio-political environment in Kashmir saw many youngsters openly show their contempt for those locking horns over the control of the state. "Rozi, roti, kapda, makaan, bijli, pani, jobs, medical and educational facilities," were high on the wishlist of these youngsters.
Bombs and bullets have failed these regions. Intimidation has lead to an increased resistance and loss of human life. Now that might alone has failed to set things right, isn't it time we stop using just brute force to smoke out the extremists and bolster muscle power with some intelligent reasoning.

Tiger baiting is passe, hopefully!

He is back doing what he's best at, playing golf. Swinging and putting where it matters. After the moral marauding by Tom, Dick, Harry, Jane, Jenny.... just about everyone who could post a verbal punch on his face, Tiger appears a rather mortified man. What wife Elin Nordegren's golf-club-wielding cum window-smashing act of rage couldn't accomplish, moral stoning by the media coupled with snuffing out of endorsement deals, achieved in a jiffy. A global public apology by the fallen man himself! ''I had affairs. I cheated.What I did was unacceptable.'' Yes, he said this and more on TV to his fans in the furthest corners of the planet earth. Wow!
So, Tiger admitted what he did was ''unacceptable,'' just wonder to whom were his sexcapades "unacceptable." The women who were over-eager to get all comfy in the celeb celestial bed? The general public who want their icons to be sticklers (or appear to be so) for the popular version of morality? The media which makes hay while a scandal lasts? Wife Elin whose trust he broke?
No apologies to the women who were concentual partners in the dalliance. The knew it was Tiger Woods they were cavorting with and perhaps wanted to enjoy the attention, of the highest earning sports star in the world, as long as they could hold it.
No sorry to the general public. His fame rests on his prowess as a golfer. On that account he has failed niether his country nor his fans outside America. He has not compromised his abilities as a golfer on any known account. As a citizen of the United States he has committed no offence for which the law of the land holds him guilty.
The media? Well, they should throw the beleaguered Tiger a party! O! Yes! A grand one! All that moral blathering and righteous indignation must have saved a lot of brain rattling over space and time filling exercises.
To Elin, yes. Tiger should say it from the heart to the woman he promised to 'love, honour, cherish and protect, forsaking all others and holding only unto her.' He broke the promise over and over again with ruthless impunity. Elin and Elin alone is the victim of Tiger's sexual trangressions and it up to her to pardon him.
The public apology, under duress, is no assurance of Tiger turning over a new leaf. "It is a matter between Elin and me, issues between a husband a wife." Let it be such. All the moral ringmasters should drop the whip. Let Elin decide whether Tiger is to be ever trusted again. Whether he will keep his promise out of love and respect for her or for fear of moral castigation by the public. As a woman I know Elin must wish for the former because that is the only gurantee against a repeat performance of the sorts.
At the moment, however, it is ace golfer Tiger Woods whom I welcome back on field under the very watchful eyes of Elin Nordegren.

CRPF:Coffins Reserved For Police Force

The photograph in the newspapers displays the bodies lined up in neat rows, like logs. Battle fatigues in shreds, faces caked with blood and the limbs of few missing. Constable Jaipal Singh, Constable Amit Kumar Singh, Constable Dharam Pal Singh, Constable Sachin Kumar... there are about seventy three of them, killed in Maoist Ambush in the Dantewada forests of Chhatisgarh. It was a neatly laid trap by the naxalites and the men in uniform seemed to have walked right into it. The end of their life story. The government's 'olive branch' approach has boomeranged. There are talks about using air power against naxalites. The political rigmarole continues as three-year-old Shivam, son of CRPF soldier Ranjit Kumar Yadav, witnesses the last rites of his father. It is Shivam and the families of the dead soldiers whom I fear for. The bread winner's gone. The memory of the common man is short and of the uncommon politicians shorter still. Seventy three dead men, mostly from lower middle-class of UP hinterland, leave behind seventy three broken families for whom sustinance alone will soon become a battle of the sorts. Leaders who didn't falter in splitting the Kargil War along party lines, are not likely to remember Shivam and his felled father in a hurry, until political expediency dictates otherwise.
I cry not for the 73 dead men but the 73 living and breathing families they have left behind in a nation which loves to bury its living with its dead.