Category Archives: Politics

So, was there action?

Shiv Sena, Shah Rukh Khan, media obsession and real issues. Err, scratch real issues.

Re-runs and re-runs of Shah Rukh Khan versus Shiv Sena on various Indian news channels (which I do not watch any longer), and the severe side-effects of this issue on my family and many others I know, has forced me to return to (personal) blogging and share some of my thoughts, which I do more often now on Twitter than here. (Yes, blame laziness.)

As usual, a big issue has been made out of a small issue and the media (yet again) escapes with misleading the public into believing that such incidents are worth more than maybe the little attention they genuinely deserve. Sure, a well-known actor is being threatened by a bunch of chauvinistic bigots. And that deserves attention.

My question is how much? And more importantly, was there action?

As expected, praise is being showered on Shah Rukh Khan while the Shiv Sena are (rightly) pelted with verbal stones. The media is whipping up hysteria around the issue, as if SRK is a national hero who’s just back from defending our borders.

There is not much doubt that SRK’s ‘great neighbours’ statement is worth condemnation. But obviously, a sane person wouldn’t want the Shiv Sena taking on his/her behalf. Hence, comes a juicy war of words, most opportunistically picked up by a national media obsessed with anything that comes out of SRK’s mouth (majorly aimed at promoting his films).

In this entire milieu, no one seems to realize that a more effective approach to this is for the Government of Maharashtra to step up and curb down the threat of the Sena strongly. But are they even in the picture? No. We, as the people of India, also need to work to take our minds away from the silently and severely damaging mindset of pop heroism, that is associated with the likes of SRK.

The Congress government of Maharashtra is arguably the weakest state government in the country, completely dependant on reaping the ‘fruits’ of identity politics and hence, stay in power.

Serious issues like water problems in Mumbai and excessive load-shedding in all parts of Maharashtra are left untouched. The BJP does what is easy (and opportunistic), and doesn’t care to do what might actually work well for them in the long run.

Action against Shiv Sena, where art thou?

[On similar lines, I had made a few observations about The Pink Chaddi versus The Pink Condom campaigns a year back. Also check out this funny take on the issue at Faking News.]

[Related post: Solilo]

Full Text of PM Rahul Gandhi’s Speech on August 15th, 2015

rahulgandhi 
Today, dear countrymen, I stand in front of you as the Prime Minister of the Republic of India.

As I stand here, I can only think of a few things – how awesome we are. India is a great country built with great principles by great leaders. We the people are even more great. It is important that we realized the importance of the values that have been put in our bodies by great people like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

On such an auspicious day, I would like to recall that the Congress party is committed to seeing a united India. We invite youngsters from all over the country to join the Youth Congress and become more aware about India. They can contribute to this great growing nation with their knowledge and ability.

We know that our neighbours have made our lives very difficult. But I promise you we will not sit back and watch. We will do something about them. But today let me ask to the people of India – does Pakistan matter? It is a small piece of land. Look at United States – a big piece of land. Or China – even bigger piece of land. They should matter more to us.

In my mind, Pakistan doesn’t matter to me for five seconds…not even one second. If you notice, the attitude of the world has changed today. Pakistan is not a one-day job. It is more of a test cricket job. It needs more time to sort itself out. 

Today, the Real India is engulfed with poverty while Fake India lives on in the cities enjoying their Pepsis and popcorns in multiplexes. We need to bridge this gap between Real India and Fake India. It is the Congress Party’s commitment to see this gap reduced. We have always believed in ideology of uplift of Real India which consists of poor and downtrodden.

Let’s hope for a great future for this country. I wish you All The Best.

Speech inspired from Rahul Gandhi himself.

Expel Varun Gandhi

varun

With general elections less than a month away, BJP leader Varun Gandhi’s alleged hate speech in Pilibhit was shameless propaganda from the Gandhi scion in an attempt to win a seat from Uttar Pradesh. The BJP-led NDA would do well to immediately repudiate Gandhi’s remarks and expel him from the party, if they are to give an indication of being mature enough to win the Lok Sabha elections.

News channels spun into a frenzy as the Hindu-Muslim fire had been ignited once again. While sense has prevailed and most leaders including Muslims from the BJP have condemned Gandhi’s remarks, the Shiv Sena has his back with their claims of ‘nothing wrong’ having been said by Gandhi. The silence of more influential leaders like Narendra Modi and Prime Minister-in-waiting L K Advani is baffling though as their quick denouncement would do a world of good to the tattered image of the BJP.

Varun Gandhi’s ‘clarification’ is unapologetic and absurd, doubling the necessity to expel the leader.

“I am a victim of political conspiracy. It was not my voice, not my words,” Mr Gandhi told a press conference in the Indian capital, Delhi.

[BBC]

Even if we were to suppose that he is a victim of a political conspiracy, just how is it not ‘his voice’ and how are those not ‘his words’?

The enemy within

There’s more to the Antulay story than the man himself

Minority affairs minister Abdul Rehman Antulay added his name to a growing list of anti-India Indians living and breeding on Indian soil by considerable vainglory and style with his contemptuous remarks on Hemant Karkare’s death.

The irrational statements ,coming directly from a Union cabinet minister’s mouth, have hence opened the door for not only self-styled Pakistani analysts and self-proclaimed observers of the “real India” but also our very own pseudo-secularist intellectuals and others of the type to create a ripple effect at a time when the country was chasing a dreaded and proven enemy on the other side of the border with some consistency.

But Antulay’s story is interwoven with more than what “meets the eye”, so to speak in the man’s own words. Why blame him alone, as many in his band of anti-Indians would say. Antulay and his band of the eternally “oppressed” have not only provided fodder for our neighbours to feed on India’s self-created divisions with giggles and chuckles and high-fives but have confirmed in all retrospect as to where their true loyalties lie. Not in aiding Pakistan’s so-called “Hindu Zionist” campaign. Not in the progress of the “oppressed” who’s cause they so passionately have picked up. It lies in their firm fundamentalist mindset, where the right wing is the mother of all evils and the cause of so much pain and agony in our lives. Not just so much. In fact, all of it does.

In no other free-minded democracy does the base of the system itself prove so costly – the freedom. Freedom in India is reaching intolerable levels and most terror attacks or so-called anti-minority actions are followed up with all sorts of abuse by the leftist intellectuals.

Arundhati Roy articulately calls Islamic terrorism a deserving return-shot from the oppressed and asks India to look thoughtfully at the reasons for which jehad is being waged. Barkha Dutt proceeds to divide India on communal lines herself by indicating that Antulay’s remarks have embarrassed the Indian Muslim, clearly giving belief to the thought that India is divided from within. Pankaj Mishra, Vinod Mehta, Teesta Setalvad, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghose and so many like-minded “scholars” feed on India’s gullible freedom like bedbugs not letting you sleep, pests screwing your crop and lice biting away on sensitive areas.

Left-liberalism is reaching unseen heights in India. Their hatred for all things Indian is not only increasingly evident but even unchanging. These sympathizers of the distressed challenge the Indian state each and every day with their uttering and hysteria-driven pedagogy.

How dare they even claim to be Indians. How dare they apply for a passport and travel abroad and preach hatred towards India. How dare they call themselves concerned “human rights” activists with a natural belief that Indians are not humans, but only abusers of human rights. How dare they speak and speak and speak without any sense of responsibility.

This dreaded brand of terrorists has their “terror camps” in the mainland. They sleep, preach and breathe anti-Indian sentiments every passing day, from our own soil. They operate abroad with their weapons (ink pens and A4-size sheets) and know that they can take refuge in their freedom that always forgives and mutter any nonsense that will always find readers because intellect is admired by many, no matter how much the nonsense ingrained within it – an intellect which is actually pseudo-intellect.

By Indians, who are actually pseudo-Indians.

If you liked this post, you might want to subscribe to the RSS FEEDS