Gujrat - The Verdict Of God

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Guys, here`s something from `The Hindustan Times` that clearly details Uncle Sam`s double standards. Nothing`s lost yet though. India can put this menace of cross-border terrorism to an end forever even now. After all, if Bush can go around bandying the definition of ``pre-emption`` even before Iraq has become a threat to US interests, I think we have far more justification when it comes to our ``friendly`` neighbor.

Double standards, Bush style
Brahma Chellaney
March 18

On the eve of US President George W. Bush`s unprovoked invasion of Iraq in what is likely to prove a turning point in world history, his double standards echo louder than his professed justifications.

Bush contended that waiting to act after enemies have ``struck first is not self-defence, it is suicide``. So he said he is setting out to pre-emptively eliminate a prospective threat.

But just days ago, Bush pleaded with Vajpayee that India should continue to exercise restraint and keep the LoC stable in the face of not a prospective threat but an actual menace —- Pakistan`s sponsorship of cross-border terrorism, which Washington acknowledges persists. Bush then called his favourite dictator, Musharraf, to thank him for his ``excellent cooperation`` in the war on terrorism.

Bush argued that a key objective in invading Iraq in the face of international opposition is to bring democracy to that nation. But last weekend, he rewarded the strengthened dictatorship in Pakistan by lifting coup-related sanctions.

In sanctions-battered Iraq, Bush wishes to bring democracy by the bayonet, ``with the full force and might of our military``, but he lifts coup-related sanctions against Pakistan as a carrot to ``facilitate the transition to democratic rule``.

Bush told Americans that ``we cannot live under the threat of blackmail`` posed by the ``apparatus of terror`` in Iraq, and that the ``terrorist threat to America and the world will be diminished the moment Saddam Hussein is disarmed``. But the removal of the Iraqi despot and the installation of a Hamid Karzai in Baghdad would not reduce the scourge of international terrorism but could spur a jehadi backlash. Washington has not named one Al Qaeda leader holed up in Iraq, but all its big Al Qaeda ``catches`` have been in Pakistan.

Bush again raised the spectre of terrorists ``one day`` acquiring nuclear weapons ``with the help of Iraq``. He continues to ignore nuclear blackmail openly practised by Pakistan.

In fact, while exploiting 9/11 to the hilt to expand US strategic interests in the world, Bush responded to the December 13, 2001 Parliament attack by rushing $175 million worth of replacement parts to Islamabad and getting the Pakistani F-16 fighter jet fleet back in full service.

If there was one sentence in Bush`s disjointed speech that made more sense in the Indian than in the US context, it was this: ``We are now acting because the risks of inaction would be far greater``.

12-head #33
Your respect for womanhood is legendary on chowk(sarcasm).

If votes and public opinion have to be mustered against Hindutva parties, against their violence and hate rhetoric, this can be done only as effectively as the public record of their competitors will allow, who will do most of this mustering.

The so-called secular forces cannot win votes or get public opinion to their side based on claims of being `better` if for example their own ministers preside over abductions or their grassroots workers are as ruthless and violent as BD or VHP.

If they are not better, then the journalist, intellectual and political community which calls itself secular must show its committment to pluralism/secularism not just by scrutinizing Hindutva organisations, but shedding their hypocrisy and also addressing the abysmal public record of nonHindutva parties, and urgently before its too late.

#21 by Sobia on March 17, 2003 10:54pm PT

I think veeresh got it wrong. ``Indian vegitarian`` is usually most prefered by most travelling Indians. Which is basically Indian food without meat or eggs. Hindu vegetarian usually is also referred to as Jain meals by travelling Indians in europe etc. It is as described by veeresh. Similar food restrictions are followed by UP bhramins ie the Tirvedis, chaturvedies, Bhardjwajs etc. I think strong smell items like Hing etc are also avoided. The South Indian Bhramins have no qualms about eating roots.

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sadna #29
Correction:
The National Commission of Women demanded that the Bihar Government trace the kidnapped woman (Kanchan Mishra) who was reportedly abducted with her young child and married to a underworld don Sultan Mian(not his friend the MP as I said). As of January, the police had failed to trace the woman as directed by the National Commission of Women:
http://www.thehindu.com/2002/12/17/stories/2002121703641200.htm

From Bihar Times:

``..While local sources describing this incident said the victim who was working in a beauty parlour was forcibly lifted from her Mainpura residence in broad day light and taken to a local mosque for nikah ceremony. After nikah a lavish reception party was organised at the residence of RJD`s state minister Ejazul Haq. And much to the surprise the officer incharge of local police station was also present in the party. Initially her family members asked for help from local police but no one came to their help because don is close to RJD MP Shahabuddin and some other political leaders. ..``

I commend Mr. Parthasarthy for calling spade a spade. If at any time in future India overcomes communal hatred and the people in power enforce the spirit of the law, India will emerge as a super power.

We have to judge the people as human being first and then what they believe in. The new religion of the World that can not be stopped is the belief in human equality, liberty, human rights and justice for all.

Why America with a population of 280 million people is super power instead of China or India who have populations exceeding 1.0 billion. People wrongly believe that it is natural resources. If it is natural resources then why big Latin American countries like Brazil and Argentina are behind even small countries of Europe like Holland and Belgium.

America may not remain free as it used to be in the past, however basic freedoms have a lot to do with its being a super power. People from all over the World come work hard and get their reward.

Unlike Middle East, America gives freedom to own business, become citizens and vote, own property, run for public office and achieve the goals in life.

Mid East countries do not give equal rights or citizen ship even to their fellow Arabs. Legal workers from other countries have to get permission to go to another city in S. Arabia. So much for Islam and freedom.

With the advent of internet, all people should continue the propagation of the age old message of love and respect for human beings preached by Gotam Buddh, Christ, Moses, Mohammad, Kabir, Nanak and countless others.

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samina #25
``is there any sort of public debate/dialogue/address of this kind of behavior on mainstream media or community or university venues? ``

Any such dialogue needs to urgently take place in the nonpolitical realm, because every party organisation has historically indulged in this sort of violence and uses it as instrument. But Indians have a lot of other more pressing problems, so such intimidation is rued, but solutions are not discussed loudly enough for the culprits to care.

Every party from the most atheist Communist Party of India(Marxist) whose workers regularly murder their opponents,

the most nonBrahminical party All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(whose cadres burnt some girls to death on a bus because they were angry that a court pronounced their leader J Jayalalitha to be guilty)

to parties of `oppressed` Dalits, Bahujan Samaj Party(whose party workers would physically evict elderly middle class couples and forcibly occupy their homes in Agra during Mayawatis previous stint as CM)

to the lower-caste/Muslim party Samajwadi party(whose Muslim MP recently kidnapped a married Hindu woman and performed forcible nikkah with her)

to Congress party-Muslim parties combination( communal riots and curfew in some inner cities had been a regular feature in some cities until some years ago, communal riots being an instrument to embarrass political opponents within ones own party-the Cong itself).

VHP(unlike the RSS) is a very late entrant to this scene. It is NOT in India`s interest and it no longer `works` to discuss only the VHP or Hindutva organisations in this context, but many self-defined secular Indians are slow to accept this.

DSouza for example, by showing his heels ( don`t know if it had to do with my relating on his board my experience of public intimidation by Communist Party of India(Marxist) in Kerala), demonstrates that even the self-defined `secular` journalists either donot have the honesty or the intellectual werewithal to face up to the WHOLE reality in India`s interests or they do so out of a mistaken and criminal(in my view) belief that any such objectivity plays into Hindutva-vadis hands.

OK that was not Samajwadi party, it was Rashtriya Janata Dal`s Member of Parliament, (Laloo Yadav`s party) Shahabuddin who kidnapped the married Hindu woman Kanchan Mishra.

It was the Samajwadi Party Chief Minister(Mulayam Singh Yadav who was later India`s Defence Minister) who was reputed to order kidnappings even as CM. Why? This is the way his party collects funds for fighting elections, the New York Times reported in the early nineties that it required approx two kidnappings to provde funds for each contested UP Assembly seat.

Sadna,
Thanks for your clear and thoughtful answers. Who are the leaders or parties that you think might lead India to a more constructive and tolerant agenda?

I was so angry when I read Dilip D`Souza`s account of the VHP mob harrassing and attacking the largely female peace protesters...is there any sort of public debate/dialogue/address of this kind of behavior on mainstream media or community or university venues?

Am I the only person who is disturbed by the missing ``a`` in Gujarat in the title of this piece? And, unfortunately, in some posts I am too mannerly to point out? Or could it be geographic confusion on the part of some, there indeed being a Gujrat, though uss paar?

Chowk staff...please.

veeresh #24
I didnot write any post sadna#22

Hello Sadna # 22 . . . the whole issue is to remind Mr Parthasarthy to take his job seriously but advise him not to take himself too seriously . . . ``Hindu veg`` as different from ``veg`` in airline speak on special meals usually means vegetarian food that does not contain any meat, poultry, fish, derivatives thereof because ``Asian veg`` often contains these, and often Hindu veg may not contain roots/stuff that grows under the ground and doubtful veg like brinjals . . . and as the fear of mad cow/meat/poultry products begins hitting more and more air travellers worldwide, this seems to be forming an increasingly opted for option with a lot of non-Hindu passengers too and increasingly on non-India routes . . . one of the reasons could also be that ``specials`` tend to be fresh as well as made better while ``standard`` non-veg/veg options still taste like assembly line mush.

That was all.

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Gujrat needs divinne intervention of the human variety.

Ras