Posts from — May 2004

Having suffered embarrassment and condemnation from all quarters, George W. Bush decided to close the huge Abu Ghraib prison, terming it as a symbol of the brutality of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The logic of both, the timing as well as the reasoning behind the demolition, escape me!

First of all, it was the American soldiers who did all the torturing which has led to the situation that Bush finds himself into. So, its strange that he chooses to demolish the structure instead of dealing with the people involved.

Also, it is not as if there’s a huge groundswell in Iraq in favour of demolishing the prison. Such a public opinion, if it exists, is in the US rather than in Iraq! So, what Bush essentially is trying to do is to play to the galleries at home, rather than do something towards the aspirations of the Iraqis. Most Iraqis seem to be wondering why the prison has to go instead of the people staffing it!

Bush also mentioned that United States would fund the bulding of a new prison after the June 30 deadline for handing over limited governing authority to the Iraqis. Now, one wonders if this isn’t just an exercise for the benefit of US contractors!!

And finally, if the abuse and ill-treatment of prisoners in American prisons is publicized, would George W. Bush go around the country knocking down these prisons and building new ones in their places!?!

Do you think that the results of Indian Elections ‘04 were essentially just a anti-capitalist vote?

Some are call-centre agents, others are salesmen, some other run fast-food stalls, while some are hotel stewards…

They are a new breed of reformed gangsters. The change can be explained by the Mumbai police’s one-point agenda: ‘Pick a gun and be gunned down’. Being a hit man meant easy money, but it also meant death.

Well at least this reform process should be allowed to continue unchecked! :-)

Heartiest congratulations to Shanti on the occasion of the birth of her cute little baby boy, Neel!!

And loads of blessings for the newly born!!

:-)

After the storm that erupted ensuing the Congress ‘victory’ in the elections and the theatrics that followed when it was announced that Sonia Gandhi would be the PM, there has been a slew of writings in support of and protest against Sonia Gandhi as the Indian Prime Minister.

We had politicians, opinion-makers, journalists, bloggers and in fact the whole world and its uncle on either side of the fence trying to bark ferociously at each other. It sure made for some interesting hearing and reading!

Countless arguments have since been raised and countered by either side. Some of these arguments have had logic behind them while others have been emotional rants full of extreme jingoism and/or a misplaced sense of pluralism/liberalism.

I can understand and empathize with most of these arguments even if they might be diametrically opposite to the views I hold. After all, that is what democracy is all about! … Differences of opinion and arguments to settle those differences!

But what I cannot take and what makes my blood boil is when someone writes something with malevolent and ill-informed judgement and that is written with calumnious intentions.

Sonia Gandhi: The Once and Future Prime Minister of India is such a vile piece of bull crap!

The author of the article, Egbert Bhatty (I’ll call him ‘Butt’y), repeatedly refers to one editorial from The Dishrag of India to ‘reinforce’ his arguments. That, in itself, is farcical to begin with!

‘Butt’y also uses excerpt from an uncredited ‘web entry’ to score his first point…

A Web entry expressed it best: “BJP supporters [sic] ass is on fire whenever exit poll results are out…..” To put it in American terms – Sonia Gandhi kicked BJP ass.

Juvenile, to say the least!

Next comes his claim that BJP repeatedly referred to Sonia as an Italian bitch…

During the three-week election they had repeatedly referred to Sonia Gandhi as the Italian bitch [“Italian female dog,” were the exact words used] and repeatedly referred to her son Rahul as a mongrel [“hybrid,” was the exact word used].

Now… not being in India during the run-up to the elections, I cannot say anything for certain about this claim, but I do know for sure that about an year or so ago, Praveen Togadia had allegedly obliquely referred to Sonia Gandhi as an italian dog. His exact words (in the context of the uproar in the country after the Gujarat riots broke out) were… “First, the local pups started barking (against Hindus). They were then joined by dogs from other parts of the country. And last, came Italy ni kutri (a bitch from Italy)“. It was a despicable thing to say (something that was printed and reprinted ad nauseum by the media) and even the VHP distanced itself from Togadia’s remarks. But I clearly do not recall having heard this ‘bitchy’ epithet during these elections! Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think these kinds of mis-informed ‘facts’ deserve utter contempt… something that they hardly get from us Indians!

Now, whipped by a slip of a girl, the worst kind of humiliation that can be suffered by an Indian male, the BJP turned its full fury against Sonia Gandhi. Her accession to the position of Prime Minister would “undo the very identity of Bharat [India] as a nation and of the Bharatiyas [Indians] as a people,” thundered a Hindus extremist ideologue.

Hold it right there Mr. ‘Butt’y… where does this gender issue enter this whole debate about Sonia Gandhi?! India has had women politicians for ages now! And they’ve been defeating their male counterparts in elections forever now! Why would such an argument even be raised?! And how connected is it to the remarks made by that ‘Hindus [sic] extremist idealogue’?? I fail to see any logic here!

Moreover, it is not just the Hindu extremists who’ve been talking about the undoing of the identity of India if Sonia became the Prime Minister! Similar sentiments have been echoed by Francois Gautier in his column titled ‘The white woman and india‘ as also Rajeev Srinivasan in his column, ‘Summer of Our discontent‘. None of them are Hindu extremists, I am sure!

Although the BJP Administration created the conditions for the current high 8% growth of the Indian economy, there was no trickle down to the poor. Half the Indian population of one billion still lives on less than $2 per day.

Which is way better than the Congress managed in the 50 years it ruled India!

Soon, her election district began referring to her as “hamari bahu” — our daughter-in-law. Then, as she crisscrossed the length and breadth of India, covering some 40,000 miles in long days in searing heat of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the disadvantaged of India, in both the rural and the urban areas, realized that this was not your usual politician – interested only in their vote. Sonia Gandhi, they realized, genuinely felt empathy for their plight. They began calling her “desh ki bahu” – daughter-in-law of the nation. Much to the chagrin of the BJP.

‘Butt’y sure has some sense of humour! That paragraph had me laughing my guts out!! Will someone tell the poor sod that the Congress recruited Sonia to save themselves from getting wiped off the Indian political scene… i.e. to get them some votes in the name of the Gandhi family!

What got the BJP dander up even further was Sonia Gandhi’s well-reasoned, well-crafted, well-calibrated attacks on the pro-business economic policies of the BJP which left the poor behind, and its social policy of Hindu supremacy which pitted Indian against Indian. Instead, she appealed for unity, tolerance – love among all men.

Despite her heavily-accented Hindi, Sonia Gandhi’s message of love got through to her audience. It was clear from the throngs that attended her election rallies that she had connected with them – and, they had connected with her.

Are we talking about Mother Teresa here?! … or Sonia Gandhi?!!

After a few further paragraphs of rambling, ‘Butt’y makes a revelation…

There has been some speculation that Priyanka and Rahul persuaded their mother, Sonia Gandhi, not to accept the position of Prime Minister for fear of being assassinated by a Hindu extremist. [Her husband Rajiv was assassinated in 1991; her mother-in-law, her husband Rajiv’s mother, Indira Gandhi, was, also, assassinated in 1984.] From the available facts it appears to be just that – speculation.

Will someone tell the ignorant author that Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi were NOT assasinated by Hindu extremists!! Is he on drugs or something?!

The list of mis-informed opinions and ‘facts’ just goes on and on and on!! It just makes me mad that people like Egbert Bhatty are spreading such lies!! I agree that BJP overdid things when it came to protesting Sonia Gandhi’s candidature for the post of Prime Minister. It sure gave voice to people like this Bhatty to air their trashy and downright slanderous views!!