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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Feb 27, 2013 AT 19:29 IST
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Edited At: Feb 27, 2013 19:29 IST
Churumuri writes:
Deccan Herald journalist Muthi-ur-Rahman Siddiqui has walked out of the central jail in Bangalore a free man, six months after being named by the city’s police in an alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba plot to target two Kannada journalists and the publisher of the newspaper they were earlier employed in.
Siddiqui had been accused of being the “mastermind” of a gang of 15 in August last year to kill editor Vishweshwar Bhat, columnist Pratap Simha and publisher Vijay Sankeshwar, allegedly for their “right-wing leanings“. The journalists were with Vijaya Karnataka of The Times of India group, before they joined Rajeev Chandrasekhar‘s Kannada Prabha.
The national investigation agency (NIA), which investigated the case, didn’t name Siddiqui in its chargesheet on February 20 following which a special court trying the case ordered his release on February 23.
On Monday night, Siddiqui walked out of jail and on Tuesday, he addressed a press conference.
Reporting for the Indian Express, Johnson T.A. writes:
About six months ago, when he appeared in court for the first time after being named by the Bangalore Police, Siddiqui, 26, still had the glint of youthful exuberance in his eyes.
But now, the first thing that comes to mind on seeing Siddiqui after his release from prison on Monday, is the disappearance of that enthusiasm from his face. Gone is the glint in his eyes, and in its place is a serious, sad man.
Even so, Siddiqui, whose thesis suggestion for his PG diploma in mass communication—’Media coverage of terrorism suspects’—was struck down by his supervisor pulled no punches in describing his own ordeal before his colleagues, compatriots and competitors.
- “The media has forgotten the ‘A’ in the ABC of Journalism [Accuracy-Brevity-Clarity].”
- “I always thought the police, media and society at large do not treat terror suspects fairly. That thinking has been reinforced by my experience.”
- “Security agencies are not sensitive towards the poor and weaker sections of society. If you look at the way the entire operation was carried out by the police and reported by the media, this insensitivity is clear.”
- According to the [Bangalore] police and the media, I am the mastermind. If I am the mastermind, why are the others still in jail? I hope they too will get justice.”
- “The media and the police need to be more sensitive toward the downtrodden, Dalits and Muslims. The way the media and the police behaved raises basic questions about their attitude toward Muslims.
- “Muslims are often cast by the media and police in stereotypes. There is an institutional bias which manifests in such cases. This is not just about me; it is about hundreds like me who are in jails [across the country] on terror charges. Muslims are not terrorists.”
- “If I was not a Muslim the police wouldn’t have picked me…. They first arrest people, then find evidence against them. What happened on August 29, 2012 was no arrest but downright kidnapping. A bunch of strong men barged into our house and forcefully took us away in their vehicles. This even as we were pleading and asking why we were being taken out.”
- “They kept interrogating me as if I was the mastermind and kept saying that I’d be in for seven years for sure. Everyone knows that jail is no fun place. For the first 30 days we were cramped in a small room. The confinement itself was torture. They did not inform our families. They did not tell us what we were being arrested for. They made us sign 30-40 blank sheets of paper. One of these papers was used to create fake, back-dated arrest intimation.”
- “Some fair play is still possible in the system. Though justice was delayed, it wasn’t denied in my case.”
Siddiqui, who is still on Deccan Herald‘s roster, says he wants to go back to journalism, for that is his passion, but wants to spend time with his family first.
Two other journalists—Jigna Vora of The Asian Age and S.M.A. Kazmi—have been arrested in recent times on terror charges. They are both out on bail.
Also See:
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Feb 27, 2013 AT 19:29 IST, Edited At: Feb 27, 2013 19:29 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Aug 31, 2012 AT 20:53 IST
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Edited At: Aug 31, 2012 20:53 IST
Muthiurrahman Siddiqui, courtesy: Facebook
Yesterday, Bangalore police arrested 11 persons, including a DRDO scientist and a journalist, with alleged links to Lashkar-e-Taiba and HUJI. and claimed to have foiled their plot to target MPs, MLAs and media persons in Karnataka.
Among the 11, the most shocking inclusion was a Bangalore-based journalist who has since been named by the police as the “mastermind” of the alleged plot:
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Aug 31, 2012 AT 20:53 IST, Edited At: Aug 31, 2012 20:53 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Jul 29, 2011 AT 23:40 IST
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Edited At: Jul 29, 2011 23:40 IST
Now that the redoubtable Mr Digvijaya Singh has jumped into the fray ("It's a very bad article and it is seditious also") after the Harvard students who wanted that the university "end its association with religious extremist Subramanian Swamy" for his distasteful op-ed of July 16 in the DNA, it is perhaps time to compile our old short-takes and also revisit Salil Tripathi's article in the Mint on July 20:
If the secular, liberal, and leftist Indians want views like Swamy’s to be restricted, then the right-wing nationalists will want views like Arundhati Roy’s to be restricted. This is not to suggest that Roy and Swamy are in any way comparable, except to suggest that both arouse visceral responses of similar intensity among different types of Indians, and India is a better society if it aggressively protects free speech. Disagree with them by all means; challenge them, debate them. Don’t stop them from speaking. Otherwise, as the late Behram Contractor, who wrote as Busybee, astutely observed about the emergency, the only safe topics left to discuss will be cricket and mangoes.
As Sandip Roy points out in the Firstpost, more than anything else, hounding Mr Swamy out of Harvard would only make him a "freespeech martyr".
The Harvard petitioners had better be careful that they don’t make Swamy a political martyr in their zeal to kick him off campus without real debate. That would allow him the perfect excuse to retreat to the safety of yet more newspaper op-eds, where he can sit on a pedestal and lob incendiary monologues.
Let Subramanian Swamy defend his ideas instead, and the whiplash-inducing twists and turns in his ideology, in an open forum...
Swamy clearly does not believe in a pluralistic “open” society. But that is no reason for the rest of us to cede those values in the name of opposing him. To repeat what he once said about Saudi Arabia: “We are not going to imitate them. Our society is different.”
Harvard students should hoist Swamy on his own words. Instead of sending him into exile, they should remind of this inconvenient truth: There is no democracy without debate.
Meanwhile, Mr Swamy seems to be revelling in all the attention that he has never perhaps got before in his life, not even for all his 2G activism, or so it would seem at least going by his tweets of the past few days, where he can of course choose to be selective in what he responds to:
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Jul 29, 2011 AT 23:40 IST, Edited At: Jul 29, 2011 23:40 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Jun 08, 2011 AT 06:19 IST
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Edited At: Jun 08, 2011 06:19 IST
Sagarika Ghose in the Hindustan Times:
The UPA has dispatched Ramdev to his ashram. The police action at the Ramlila Maidan was insupportable and the BJP has now gained a cause celebre. The RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have fully supported Ramdev from the start. On Twitter, anyone critical of Ramdev is being dubbed a ‘Congress
agent’ by Sangh parivar activists.
The Ramdev phenomenon and, to some extent, the Anna Hazare campaign are part of India’s right-wing nationalist revolution. It is right-wing because it is based on national pride and individual entitlement. It is a movement of the middle and lower middle class buoyed up by 9% growth that now seeks a responsive, overtly honest government and a hard State.
This revolution is closely linked to a Hindu consolidation spreading through society. Perhaps as a backlash to globalisation, urban religiosity and Bharatiya sanskriti have become fashionable; faith in gurus is growing and it cuts across classes. Ramdev jumps from colas to homosexuality to black money in his choice of enemies, yet his devotees’ faith remains constant.
Notwithstanding the BJP’s crushing electoral defeats, the Hindu nationalist consolidation is gathering tremendous cultural momentum, much of which feeds into the anti-corruption campaigns. The Ram janmabhoomi movement is back, in a new sophisticated avatar.
Read on at the Hindustan Times
Incidentally, journalists known to be close to the BJP are far more circumspect about the impact of Ramdev.
Swapan Dasgupta in the Times of India puts his finger on what should certainly be worrying the BJP:
The BJP believes it too will be the principal gainer from the Congress's inability to respond to the 2009 mandate. That may be. Yet, it should reflect over why civil society movements are acquiring momentum in precisely those regions where BJP is the natural alternative to the Congress. Even if the Facebook crowd is aesthetically inclined towards the 'non-party' activism of the NGOs and the likes of Anna Hazare, why is the non-cosmopolitan middle class acquiescing to the opposition mantle being passed on to a baba rather than to a political party espousing the same values?
For India's politicians, the need to subsume banality and dubious history in reflection was never more pressing. The Ramdev crisis has burnt the Congress but it has also singed the opposition.
And Ashok Malik argues that Ramdev is too independent and autonomous to be satisfied being a prop for the Sangh Parivar – as the RSS network is called – or indeed any party:
Till a week ago he seemed happy to do a deal with the Congress on his terms. Today, he is happy to enter into a mutually-beneficial and expedient relationship with non-Congress parties, the BJP the biggest among them....
Ramdev is a Yadav from Haryana, an OBC. He can attribute his fame not to some ancient monastery but to television. He is one of a generation of astonishingly successful televangelists.
These televangelists don’t restrict themselves to caste or sectional mobilisation; they don’t carve out geographical territories. Instead, they seek to construct pan-Indian constituencies, particularly among television-watching audiences in urban India, largely in small towns but in big cities as well.
Today, a Ramdev has greater name, brand and face recall than the RSS, the VHP and almost all of the worthies who signed up for the dharma sansad 20-25 years ago. Unlike them, he is not going to be reined in by group discipline. That’s what makes him – and others like him – so fascinating and so unpredictable.
The question is: can they influence voting decisions as well?
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Jun 08, 2011 AT 06:19 IST, Edited At: Jun 08, 2011 06:19 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Apr 14, 2011 AT 01:38 IST
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Edited At: Apr 14, 2011 01:38 IST
Javed Anand in the Indian Express:
A few weeks ago, I received a call from Mayank Gandhi, Mumbai coordinator of ‘India Against Corruption’, invting me to be part of a panel in Mumbai to address a press conference on the then upcoming fast by Anna Hazare. “Your name has been suggested to me by Swami Agnivesh. We want Muslims like you, not fanatical Muslims. So please join us and suggest other Muslim names”, I was told.
Great, I thought: Which Indian is not sick of corruption? Here was a budding movement, clearly focused on a single issue but not blind to related concerns. The Mumbai coordinator of the campaign was very clear that they were only interested in “good Muslims” like me and did not wish to get mixed up with the fundamentalist lot. So I thanked him for the invitation and promised to get back in a day or two.
Read on at the Indian Express
Harsh Mandar in the Hindustan Times:
And yet why could I not actively join the demonstration at Jantar Mantar? First, the symbols and allies that the campaign chose disturbed me: the stage was decorated with a picture of Bharat Mata, almost identical to that propagated by the right-wing RSS. Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the two 'god-men' who dominated the campaign and whose followers contributed the largest numbers at the protest, endorse many Hindutva causes including the construction of a Ram Temple. RSS leaders like Ram Madhav were welcomed on to the stage. My fears were further confirmed when Anna Hazare declared that Narendra Modi was a 'model' chief minister. It's difficult to comprehend how a campaign that claims to be Gandhian can extol a government responsible for the slaughter of its religious minorities. Is the condoning of violent retribution against communities, the complicity in slaughter of the official machinery, the systematic subversion of the criminal justice system to protect those guilty of the massacre, or extra-judicial killings not signs of corruption?
Read the full piece at the Hindustan Times
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Apr 14, 2011 AT 01:38 IST, Edited At: Apr 14, 2011 01:38 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Jan 20, 2011 AT 08:26 IST
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Edited At: Jan 20, 2011 08:26 IST
January 10: Darul Uloom Deoband gets its first Gujarati vice-chancellor in Maulana Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi, a cleric who holds an MBA from Maharashtra and has been feted for introducing modern education at a madrassa in Akkalkuwa in Nandurbar.
January 19: The Times of India says New Deoband chief lauds Modi's Gujarat and quotes him as saying that "all communities" are prospering in Narendra Modi's Gujarat and that there is "no discrimination against the minorities in the state as far as development was concerned" :
"The issue is almost eight years old now and we should move forward," Vastanvi told TOI on Tuesday. "Rioting anywhere — in Gujarat or in any other part of the world — is bad for humanity and it should never happen. Gujarat riots were a blemish for India and all culprits should be punished."
Vastanvi said "there are not as many problems in Gujarat as has been projected." Asked about justice for the Gujarat riot victims, he said the riots had worsened "because the police did not act due to political pressure during those days".
But he differed with what many activists working among the riot victims or the UPA government at the Centre claim about continuing discrimination against Muslims in Gujarat. He said, "As far as relief work riot is concerned, it has been carried out very well by government and people of Gujarat."
The Deoband chief has obviously been impressed by the economic progress of Gujarat. He said, "Development has undoubtedly taken place in Gujarat and we hope it will continue. I ask Muslims to study well. The government is ready to offer jobs (to them), but for that, they need good education."
Predictably, the remarks have received saturation coverage, largely because, as Sadanand Dhume reminds us in the WSJ, while talking about the Gujarat model of development:
Nine years after Hindu-Muslim riots killed more than 1,000 people, three-quarters of them Muslim, the violence continues to cast a shadow over how Indians talk about Gujarat. Mr. Modi's critics accuse him of either abetting or failing to control the bloodletting in 2002. His supporters say he is a scapegoat for events largely beyond his control.
To be sure, this larger national conversation, at its heart about morality in public life, will not disappear any time soon.
The Telegraph quotes some prominent Muslim voices:
Maulana Khalid Rasheed, the Nani imam of Lucknow’s Aishbagh Idgah mosque, said: “The statements are highly irresponsible. Modi sponsored one of the most horrific genocides in India for which the US refuses to give him a visa. Secular Hindus are still fighting for justice to the victims. The Deoband Maulana is otherwise a good person. But he has undermined the institution’s prestige.”
Kamal Farooqi, a former minorities commission chairman and a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said: “His (Wastanavi’s) job is to issue religious edicts and not give a clean chit to a person no secular Hindu in India will appreciate.”
The Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, said he would explore the possibility of “confronting” him with other clerics if he did not apologise quickly.
The only person to back Wastanavi is Zafar-ul Islam, the editor of an English daily Milli Gazette and former head of the Muslim Musharawat.
“The Modi of 2002 and the Modi of today are different. We don’t expect him to apologise for 2002. Don’t forget that Modi appointed a Muslim police chief which is a big thing for us. He has started a number of schemes in which Muslims have been made stakeholders. He has not uttered a single derogatory word against Muslims. So there’s no reason to react against Wastanavi,” Islam said
Others like Farzana Versey are equally dismissive of Vastanvi's remarks:
Maulana Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi, has given his stamp of approval to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. Shocked? Don’t be. They both essentially perpetuate the same schema of religion as the subterranean text. Both have worked wonderfully at brainwashing people – one with the carrot of ‘Gujarati pride’, the other with the stick of fatwas that make faith into some watertight compartment.
Ummid.com has some more reactoions:
Maulana Syed Mohammad Wali Rehmani, head of Khankahe Rehmania, Munger and Vice President of All India Majlise Mushawerat: "Narendra Modi's hands are stained with the blood of hundreds of Muslims. Moreover, he never showed any remorse for his failure as Chief Minister during the Gujarat riots. Maulana Vastanvi's comments that appeared in today's newspaper are far from reality and lack credibility. At the time when evidences after evidences are coming out to prove the involvement of Hindu right wing organizations in terrorism, one should think twice before opening the mouth".
Maulana Burhanuddin Qasmi, Deoband alumnus and Director of Markazul Maarif, Mumbai: "What Maulana Vastanvi has reportedly said about Narendra Modi and the present situation in Gujarat is absolutely rubbish and far from reality. He is from Gujarat and might be needing 'support from the government' to run his institutions in the state. He is free to do that in his personal capacity. But as the VC of Darul Uloom, his responsibilities are much more. He should refrain from issuing such absurd statements."
Maulana Mehmood Daryabadi, Gen Secretary of All India Milli Council, Mumbai: "Darul Uloom Deoband is an Islamic and religious seminary and it has never involved itself in politics. Maulana Vastanvi's statements are uncalled for and by issuing such statement, he has degraded his post."
Naved Hamid, National Integration Council (NC) member: "Of late, every businessman and those who have 'resources' and 'money' are coming out in support of Narendra Modi. They are doing so perhaps to safeguard their interests. If Narendra Modi is providing equal opportunities to every one, Why he is not interested in minority development schemes for minorities in Gujarat? Why instead of pushing the justice to those who suffered during the riots and killed in dubious encounters, his government is taking all efforts to bail out the culprits?"
Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, Editor, The Milli Gazette: "One may disagree with what Maulana Vastanvi said about Narendra Modi and Gujarat. But I think the situation has improved for the minorities in Gujarat and Maulana Vastanvi's observation is appropriate and good for the community in the present scenario"
TwoCircles.net has a follow-up to the TOI story in which, despite hostile reactions, the Maulana has remained consistent in his plea for moderation:
“Muslims are doing businesses here. They are getting education. There has been no violence in the last eight years. They are living peacefully in Gujarat. Now tell me my son, what should I say? Should I say Muslims are oppressed here, they are facing atrocities. If I say so, Modi will ask me where are the oppressed Muslims, and then how many such Muslims will stand behind me?
“Why should I create a controversy by saying everything is wrong in the state and nothing is good for Muslims?” he asked.
On the Gujarat riots also he reiterated his views: The riots happened eight years ago. It was wrong. It brought bad repute to the state and the country. “But what should we do now? Should we sit and weep or should we move ahead? But it does not mean the guilty should not be punished. Those involved in the riots should be punished and justice should reach the victims,” said Maulana Vastanvi who has been elected rector of Deoband after the death of Maulana Marghoobur Rahman last month.
However, on the issue of relief to riot victims, the Maulana said his complete views were not published by the paper. “As far as relief work riot is concerned, it has been carried out very well by government and people of Gujarat,” the TOI had quoted him as saying.
When TCN asked him how he can say so when several hundreds of riot victims are still reported to be living in relief camps, the Maulana said this was not his complete view. “I had also said that the victims should be rehabilitated. Houses should be built for those whose homes were looted, put on fire and destroyed,” he said.
According to the Maulana, he had also demanded release of innocent Muslim youths who have been put behind bars in terror cases but this also did not get space. There are hundreds of Muslims languishing in Gujarat jails in terror cases.
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Jan 20, 2011 AT 08:26 IST, Edited At: Jan 20, 2011 08:26 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Dec 14, 2010 AT 23:10 IST
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Edited At: Dec 14, 2010 23:10 IST
On WSJ, yesterday, Rupa Subramanya Dehejia had a thoughtful and provocative blog with the above title that concluded with:
In the hypothetical but not implausible event that Ms. Roy gets “that” phone call from Oslo, what will be the reaction in India? How would you react? Would you take it as a symbol of the triumph of our democracy or a black mark on Indian national identity? Would you feel proud or outraged? Share your thoughts.
More here
ANI's Smita Prakash took up the challenge to provide some possibile scenarios:
The left liberals in the media and outside would be ecstatic and the right-wing Hindu nationalists would call it a conspiracy to tear the fabric of India. Outlook magazine would carry a special 42-page article on Roy and her various articles in the magazine.
...
Meanwhile the Home Ministry spokesperson would give a sound bite to a TV channel, saying, "It is a mischievous move on the part of some nations to award a person who meets with separatists and terrorists who have links with anti-national forces like the ISI, of Pakistan. This person whose phone we are not tapping, if at all her phone is being tapped, is conversing on a regular basis with people who the Government of India is looking out for, you know anti-nationals. It's a shame. But then, we have nothing to say. Please ask the Ministry of External Affairs for a reaction."
To read the MEA's response and more, please click here
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Dec 14, 2010 AT 23:10 IST, Edited At: Dec 14, 2010 23:10 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Dec 09, 2010 AT 23:12 IST
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Edited At: Dec 09, 2010 23:12 IST
Continuing with the "It-Happens-Only-In-Pakistan" Deptt, to add to yesterday's blogpost which mentioned how only Pakistani newspapers were quoting some "exclusive" WikiLeaks about former Indian Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor being "an incompetent combat leader and rather a geek" and the current chief is "an egotist, self-obsessed, petulant and idiosyncratic General, a braggadocio and a show-off"
First, from Cafe Pyala:
I think where my incredulity reached a tipping point was when the cables claimed well regarded Indian policeman Hemant Karkare - who had been following leads about the involvement of Indian right-wing Hindutva organizations in the Samjhota Express bombing and about whose death there has already been plenty of controversy within India - was "eliminated in a pre-planned ambush during the Mumbai attacks", the implication being 'by the covert operatives of the Indian army.' According to the report in The News:
"The cable suggested that Hemant Karkare held a secret meeting with a senior US diplomat in New Delhi during the national day reception of a friendly country and briefed him about the gravity and the growing depth of the nexus between top Indian Army leadership and the militant Hindu fanatic groups. Karkare sought security for him and his family from the said American diplomat as he feared that the army and establishment would eliminate him as he intended to move further to expose the network. He had further briefed the said US diplomat that a former commander-in-chief of the Central Command of the Indian army, Lt Gen PN Hoon, was heading the militancy wing of the Hindu extremists and was getting full tactical, logistic and financial support from senior army officers. The day, Karkare was eliminated in a pre-planned ambush during the Mumbai attacks, a cable sent to the US read “we have lost an important link and a vital evidence”."
And, then the Guardian: Pakistani media publish fake WikiLeaks cables attacking India:
An extensive search of the WikiLeaks database by the Guardian by date, name and keyword failed to locate any of the incendiary allegations. It suggests this is the first case of WikiLeaks being exploited for propaganda purposes.
The controversial claims, published in four Pakistani national papers, were credited to the Online Agency, an Islamabad-based news service that has frequently run pro-army stories in the past. No journalist is bylined.
Shaheen Sehbai, group editor at the News, described the story as "agencies' copy" and said he would investigate its origins.
The incident fits in with the wider Pakistani reaction to WikiLeaks since the first cables emerged.
The Guardian report also concludes by quoting the Pakistani blog Cafe Pyala quoted above:
Noting that the story was bylined to "agencies" – a term that in Pakistan means both a news agency and a spy outfit – the blogger Cafe Pyala asked: "How stupid do the 'Agencies' really think Pakistanis are?"
Post Script:
It does not end there. The Express Tribune of December 10 even carrieas an op-ed by Zafar Hilaly:
Ironically, if the cables are a concoction, as our conspiracy theorists aver, then, logically the latest disclosures about Indian brutalities against Muslims that the cables from the American Embassy in New Delhi reveal, would also be false. In fact, the horrors perpetrated on Muslims by the Indian Army led by generals, in the mould of the war criminal Milosevic, are precisely what our intelligence reports relay. Are we then lying to ourselves?
And for some weekend levity, you could perhaps check out: #WhatAgenciesWantLeaked
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Dec 09, 2010 AT 23:12 IST, Edited At: Dec 09, 2010 23:12 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Nov 04, 2010 AT 01:24 IST
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Edited At: Nov 04, 2010 01:24 IST
Just two articles of note that I had read earlier and thought deserved to be blogged about, for the record:
Leo Mirani in the Guardian:
Roy has important things to say, but her tone and bluster ensure the only people listening are those who already agree with her. She is preaching to the converted. To the left-leaning publications of the west, she is an articulate, intelligent voice explaining the problems with 21st-century India. For the university lefties in India, she confirms their worst fears of a nation falling apart. But to any intelligent readers who may be sitting on the fence or for anyone from middle-class India taking their first tentative steps towards greater political involvement, her polemic serves to terrify and alienate.
As Salil Tripathi writes over at the Index on Censorship blog, "Initially her dissent was seen as admirable, then as a novelty, and now her view is largely marginalised." This week's shenanigans prove that debate about Arundhati Roy is, as ever, thriving. But her writing is rapidly becoming irrelevant in Indian public discourse.
Venkatesan Vembu in the DNA narrated the points he had made in a BBC programme:
I'm not calling for Arundhati Roy to be arrested or tried for sedition. I also vehemently oppose the online outpourings of extreme right-wing lynch mobs. Nor do I defend the role of the Indian State in Kashmir.
However, Roy's delineation of the situation in Kashmir is overly simplistic, intellectually dishonest and wholly lacking in nuance or balance; in her reductionist worldview, the Indian State is Downright Evil; poor Kashmiri civilians are tortured without reason. But Kashmir's contemporary history is more complex than that. There are other geopolitical forces - including Pakistan-backed jihadi elements whose larger aim is the disintegration of secular India - that she does not acknowledge. That incomplete narrative amounts to a denial of history on her part. And in a volatile situation of the sort that exists in Kashmir, her selective outlining of history has enormous, dangerous real-life consequences...
...
"I'm not so cussed as to say that Ms Roy has it all wrong. She does an important job of holding up a mirror to Indian civil society and forcing us to focus on our failings. That's an important function. In 1998, when she declared herself an 'independent mobile republic', I met her at a public talk and I asked for citizenship in her 'republic'. So she's greatly admired, even by some of us who critique her work."
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Nov 04, 2010 AT 01:24 IST, Edited At: Nov 04, 2010 01:24 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Sep 13, 2010 AT 23:59 IST
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Edited At: Sep 14, 2010 02:28 IST
It is understandable perhaps that the PM's remarks in his meeting with some of the print editors on September 6 will continue to be analysed. First Neerja Chowdhury in the New Indian Express on September 8:
This was the second time in three months that Manmohan Singh made clear that he did not intend to throw in the towel. This was a strange thing for the PM to do, particularly since he happens to be a PM who enjoyed the goodwill of Sonia Gandhi and was the only non-Nehru-Gandhi to be projected as the Congress’ prime ministerial choice before the election, in 2009. And if you look at the situation dispassionately, he continues to be the best bet for her. His words showed that either some wanted him to step down — there has been a buzz that he might quit either after the Commonwealth Games or after US President Barack Obama’s visit or after the UP elections in 2012 to make way for Rahul Gandhi — or that he was himself contemplating it. [Read on: An ideological tussle ]
Writing for Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, Swapan Dasgupta on September 10:
The PM is disinclined to make casual comments. What he said last Monday may not have been scripted but they had been carefully thought through. In both his defence of Chidambaram (not merely the individual but also his management of the Home Ministry) and his indictment of environmental over-zealousness, Singh had a direct political message to his party. He seemed to be suggesting that every individual claiming privileged access to 10 Janpath doesn't have a monopoly of correctness in a broad church party.
This appears to be an audacious contradiction of the assumptions on which the Congress has hitherto proceeded. Whether Singh was gently testing the waters or indicating that he can also be his own man is a matter of conjecture. Conventional wisdom would suggest that he was signalling to the Gandhis that their hounds had to be tamed. [Read the full piece: Disquiet in Congress]
And over the weekend, writing for the Times of India, M.J. Akbar wondered why the PM chose to compare his cabinet with those of Congress's "supreme icons" and that his "less-than-laudatory reference to Nehru, Patel and Indira Gandhi was a revealing moment":
Rao was the first prime minister of what might be called the non-Nehru faction of Congress. Over the last two decades, Rao and Singh, with occasional help from right-wing parties, have sharply diluted the Nehru-Indira legacy, even as they continue to pay lip service to their names. They sincerely believe that they have served their nation better with economic reforms that took an axe to the state sector, and a strategic partnership with the United States. Indeed, they have been widely applauded by the new-economy elite. Rao even damaged the social consensus that Nehru forged between Hindus and Muslims after the trauma of Partition. Singh, of course, does not contribute to such radical social revisionism. But in the vortex of his unexpressed thought is perhaps a sense that history will place Rao on a pedestal higher than Nehru. [Read the full piece: Memo to PM: Ego is unflattering]
In his Sunday Guardian column, Mr Akbar again returned to the PM's remarks in his meeting with the editors, albeit in passing:
Years of being politically correct at the cost of economic discipline are beginning to tell. He tipped over when the Supreme Court instructed his Government to feed the impoverished instead of letting grain rot. Dr Singh’s retort was sharp; in sum, that the Government was not in the business of charity. If the grain had to rot, so be it; if the impoverished wanted food they would have to go to the market. There is economic logic, apparently, in letting rats get fat. The Supreme Court, said the PM, should live outside the policy zone. If a lesser being had made such a remark, it would doubtless have invited contempt of court, but even supreme judges know better than to summon a Prime Minister at the drop of a remark.
Read the full piece: Wanted, a Nobel Prize for Honesty
On Saturday, September 11, Shekhar Gupta had some advice for the PM in the Indian Express:
When a newspaper article, or even stray criticism by an NAC member can chill the government into rethinking or inaction, the only way to function is to institutionalise that interaction. How that is best done, the prime minister and Sonia have to figure out. Otherwise excuses to do nothing will keep arising, and so will irritants.
Read on Go, or Get Going?
What do you think?
Read Full Post
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Sep 13, 2010 AT 23:59 IST, Edited At: Sep 14, 2010 02:28 IST
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