viewpoint

Apology is a curse. Excuse is a crime. But then the only daily that proclaims itself as India’s National Newspaper has to come true to the burden of expectations from its readers. Unfortunately The Hindu fails on this account. It is liked and loved for sticking to old journalistic values and practices. Its coverage is exquisite. Very few newspapers in India publish book reviews. So insightful are the reviews that one is tempted to buy well-reviewed books. The Hindu is the mainstay of India’s future civil servants as it provides in-depth material in all subjects.

But unfortunately it is too leftist for comfort. The shameful part is that it has had to censor news of naxal atrocities of late. You would not find a word about the Gadchiroli massacre of policemen last week in India’s national newspaper. The Hindu editorial dated October 10, 2009 - Keep Out the Armed Forces also fails to mention the recent acts of violence by the naxalites, which include the beheading of Francis Induvar and the Gadchiroli incident, forget their condemnation.

The editorial is a bag full of excuses and apologies on behalf of the naxals. The Hindu has thankfully not as yet become the mouthpiece of the naxaites, but it remains the only national newspaper that provides space to the naxal viewpoint. The editorial vehemently opposes any use of, what it calls ‘counter-violence’, by the State. The naxals and The Hindu are scared that the terrorists will be exterminated a la the LTTE if the Indian government were to use the armed forces.

No one can fight a war with one hand tied to their backs. The Indian armed forces should be used proactively to root out the naxalites. Till this is fully achieved, I shall not dump The Hindu, but will keep a vigilant eye on it. I still love the paper for its overall coverage. But then patience has its limits.

Mr L K Advani has failed to lead the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) going by any loose definition of leadership. That he is the most influential and powerful politician in the BJP is without doubt. But whether he leading the BJP at all is in serious doubt.

After remaining in the background and allowing Mr Vajpayee to head the government for six years, Mr Advani started projecting himself as the PM-in-waiting in 2004. Since then the BJP, which had under Mr Vajpayee run the government smoothly barring the Gujarat carnage, has gone from bad to worse. Recent events in the party that saw the Jaitley saga during the elections, the resignation of Mr Yashwant Sinha from all party posts after the elections, the exclusion of ideologue Arun Shourie from the Chintan Baithak, the over-the-phone-call expulsion of Mr Jaswant Singh and now the Vasundhara Raje being asked to step down despite enjotying support of majority of the Rajasthan MLAs - are all signals of decay in the BJP.

Mr Rajnath Singh’s assertion that Mr L K Advani will continue to lead the party “for the next 50 to 100 years” is a splendid example of the BJP’s divorce from reality. While wishing Mr Advani the pink of health for the next 100 years, one hopes the BJP would have found a leader in the near future if it has to survive as a political entity. If not the BJP would not last the next 100 years. The political spectrum badly needs a credible opposition to the ruling Congress for the good of Indian democracy. And I am not suggesting the regressive Left as any alternative at all. Didn’t they expel veteran Somnath Chatterjee for no real reason? And their espousal of causes has been a mere eyewash.

For the first time I got up at 4.30 am today, not to watch a match. I switched on the TV, keeping the volume low lest I disturb the entire household. I was keen to know how far security forces had succeeded in flushing out terrorists from key buildings in Mumbai.

Mumbai has been in the news till recently for all the wrong reasons. More than the Bihari vs Marathi tussle, Mumbai today is at the crux of the largest terror strike ever on India. Thankfully both the ruling as well as opposition parties are talking in unison.

One only hopes these are not mere words as they have been throug the umpteen terror attacks in the last few years.

The terrorists know fully well that India is an easy and soft target. Till now we had the foreign hand triggering blasts, with a few active sympathisers. But of late, we have full-fledged terrorist organisations that are active.

It is time the politicians stop condemning such attacks or blaming it on ISI. Even if ISI is behind this, what are we doing to preempt terrorist activity. We have hardly any intelligence to stall surprises. Add to it the state-centre spat. The blame game continues for a few days with the Home Minister announcing that the state government (which controls the state police) was forewarned. And the nothing is done.

22nd July 2008 will go down in the history of Indian Parliament (sorry for the capital P this one last time). MPs brandishing cash, cross-voting, and mud-slinging; a Prime Minister not having the courage to speak; a Sikh MP from Bihar exhoring the Sikhs to vote for your own; Omar Abdullah’s crocodile tears; and so forth and so on.

With 15 cross-votes and all in favour of the UPA, imagine what would have happened if the ruling party had not managed to buy MPs. The biggest loser in this is undoubtedly the BJP which has once again proved its incapacity of offering an alternative; it cannot even hold its flock together!

The Congress, already gasping for breath hasn’t won either. It will now be hostage to smaller parties, giving in to their petty demands. Will it be able to push through the reforms the Left has not allowed it to implement so far? If it can do that and control inflation, it can hope to do well in the future.

As the world watches mutely, hundreds of Tibetans are losing their lives. They had lost their freedom long time back, so no one is actually shedding a tear about that!

What is surprising is that the world at large has been subscribing to the Chinese view. That includes the Indian government, and some leading newspapers in this country. I was appalled to note that the Hindu, which is on this weblog’s list of favourite sites, chose to publish what read like a Chinese press release in its editorial titled ”The question of Tibet” (March 26, 2008).

The editorial was a stunner and raises many questions about The Hindu’s editorial policy. It taken a highly biased, pro-China, stand. The editorial mentions that Tibetan demonstrators committed arson, to the extent of killing people on March 14. Why didn’t The Hindu or any other newspaper not cover this earlier?

You editorial also goes on to equate Tibet with Kashmir. That Kashmir is not accepted by vested interests as part of India is not our headache. Kashmir acceded to India as part of the partition agreement. Princely states had the right to join either India or Pakistan. When the accession of other states is not questioned, why should Indians themselves doubt the legality of Kashmir? It was shocking to see such flawed logic to justify Chinese policy. Another needless reference in the editorial is between the demand for ‘Greater Tibet’ and breaking up of states in India. If newspapers were to begin dispensing such logic like politicians, where would we end up?

It is also news, as per the editorial, that political discussions have been going on between Tibetans and China for three decades. If Tibet is a part of China, then why should there be any negotiations at all?

That the entire world dare not challenge China’s hegemony over Tibet, thanks to its military and economic power, does not mean that all is hunky-dory in China and Tibet.

But then all is not lost. We still have conscientious men like Baichung Bhutia who have the guts to stand up. 

While Indians were pillorying the Australians for their obnoxious behaviour on and off the cricket field, the Australian Prime Minister had the guts to say sorry to the “Lost Generation”. This was a great moment in Australian history, particularly more so when his immediate predecessor had openly refused to apologise.

Generations of original Australian aborigines had been subjected to the white man’s burden, as Rudyard Kipling would have us believe, of civilising the differently coloured. This exercise of culturing people has imposed unimaginable harm on at least three to four generations of parents and children.

In this context, “Closing the Circle” by Lotte Mjoberg, Reader’s Digest, July 2007 is a moving story of the Swedish author who discovers that her forefathers were robbers of Australian aborigines’ graves. She narrates the tale of apologising to the affected families in a highly emotional account.

Another article I would like readers to refer to is “The Aboriginal Butterfly” by Liza Bejoy, published in the Hindu dated 16 March 2008. The author compares the attempt by the whites who had reached Australia only in 1778, to tamper with the million years old aboriginal way of living to the harm that a person may do to a butterfly by helping it come out of its cocoon. This the author says results in an ugly and handicapped butterfly. Readers can access this article by clicking the following hyperlink:

http://www.hindu.com/op/2008/03/16/stories/2008031650021400.htm

The killing of a Maharashtrian by the pro-Marathi trouble makers is unfortunate. Someone who had nothing to do with an ill-conceived agitation has, as happens in all such cases, been sacrificed. Mahatma Gandhi had said during his Satyagraha movement in South Africa that, there is suffering to be borne in all forms of conflict - whether violent or non-violent. The same has befallen an innocent man and his family.

Separatists have time and again targeted their diatribe against Gujaratis, South Indians, and now North Indians, in Maharashtra. The moot question to be asked is - Is Maha-rashtra larger than the Rashtra that is India? While it is alright to be patriotic, why should it be limited to borders of state and country?

We all are too deeply rooted to our sub-nationalities, if the existence of any thing of the sort is to be acknowledged. Whether we like it or not, each one of us is an Indian first. The current agitation is akin to the Kashmiri Pandits being thrown out of J&K. There is only the difference of degree.

The issue of development is getting lost in the din of the turmoil. States like UP, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal have very little to offer to those who have chosen to seek work in large metros. All the menial jobs go to these migrants. Their role in the development of Mumbai, for instance, cannot be undermined. These people offer the choice of labour at low wages to the moneyed people.

Adam Gilchrist has finally called it a day. Not that he has decided to retire when he is at the peak of his career. He had been saying for some time that his body wasn’t responding fully to the needs of international cricket. He needs to be praised for realising and accepting the reality and quitting before being kicked out!

Australian cricketers have time and again chosen to retire when at their peak. This includes Warne and McGrath last year. Sadly this is not true for Indians. We have some stubborn gentlemen heel bent on being kicked out.

Vengsarkared is being coined as a new term for individuals in any field who fulfil any one or more of the following criteria:

1. Someone who is axed even after being consistently good in form/performance
2. Someone who is too smart for the team leader
3. Someone who is in his mid-thirties
4. Someone who has scored more than 10000 runs (in cricket), e.g., Dravid and now Ganguly.

(Note: Sachin could be the next, going by criteria 3 and 4 above, but he will escape the axe because he is a Maratha)

There could be more attributes, which readers can suggest. In fact this term can be used in any field for someone who has always felt s/he was doing as well as s/he could. But suddenly s/he is dumped to satisfy the ego of the powers that be. If this term were to gain acceptance, Indians could proudly claim to have added one more to management jargon.