Yesterday American F-15 jet fighters and B-1 bombers dropped bombs on a Pakistani Frontier Corps checkpoint killing soldiers and thus escalating the tensions between the “allies” in the war on terror. A study by RAND Corp had warned few days back that Pakistani intelligence agents and paramilitary have been aiding Taliban in attacking the Americans. The Pakistanis, used to applying this design pattern in the Kashmir border, thought the response would be a threatening letter or in the worst case scenario, a speech from Karzai, but instead found strong retaliation.

Such an asymmetric warfare happened in Kerala too.It all started with the State Women’s Commission asking the Government to make sure that girls below 18 are not forcibly enrolled as nuns. The Church was furious. The Congress said that the government had no role in managing religious beliefs. The chairperson of the Commission was asked to quit. After lot of noise, the Commission has decided to go “soft” on the issue for no one expected that F-16s and B-1s would be seen on the horizon.

Last year the Communists desperately wanted to get singer KJ Yesudas inside Guruvayoor temple. One minister, Sudharakan, wanted women to have darshan at Sabarimala. Both issues, at this moment, go against Hindu beliefs. (Reforms are required and it is for Hindu priests and religious authorities to decide). At that time we did not see sanctimonious lectures from the Congress Party on the need to stay away from religious beliefs. Maybe Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala was busy helping Rajasekhar Reddy decide if Ahmadiyas are Muslims or not.

In the version of secularism practiced by Indian Govt. there is the Durand Line and the Line of Control. The Line of Control is like a tourist spot; anyone can walk in, urinate, and walk away. But the Durand Line is the Lakshama Rekha. If you do tourism there, as Rajiv Gandhi succintly put it, “naani yaad aayegi“.

Mammotty, chairman of the Communist owned Kairali Channel, has always stayed loyal to leftist ideologies. Appearing alongside N. Ram, China’s man in India, at a DYFI meet he rightly criticized the Gujarat carnage ignoring the Communist atrocities in Nandigram. In 2005, he was to act in a Coke commercial for a remuneration of Rs. 20 million, but backed off at the last moment since the party was against Coke at that point in time. A staunch anti-imperialist, he has made sure that his children have the best life possible in United States and Britain. In short, he is a leftist with all the associated hypocrisy.

Now there is a disturbance in the force. First Mammotty told the media that he was in discussions with Microsoft to launch a statewide education project. Microsoft and Communist Party, for the uninitiated, have an Amitabh Bachchan-Raj Thackerey relationship. The official policy of the Communist Party is to use open source software in all e-governance applications to break the monopoly of proprietary software companies and thus Mammotty being the brand ambassador for the Microsoft would be like Darth Vader explaining the layout of the Death Star to Luke Skywalker.

The second event was more shocking. Canceling a shoot, Mammotty came to Kochi to receive a copy of L.K.Advani’s autobiography from the author and stood alongside BJP leaders. In his panegyric Mammotty mentioned that the book was a statesman’s biography and agreed with the RSS point of view that a confederation of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh was required.

The Communist party has evicted long serving members for going against the party line. M.P. Parameshwaran, a staunch Communist, was against capitalism and imperialism, but advocated a “fourth world” model which would “seek to regulate the production of goods only to fulfill the `needs’ of the people and not for their `greed’. Parameshwaran could not get the party leaders to cotton to this idea and he was expelled for he believed that socialism could not be achieved through dictatorship.

The ramblings against Mammotty have started.Now that he is doing everything which is anathema to the Communist will he also be shown the door or will they tolerate his divarication?

“Myself and my daughters would never like Sarabjit freed inexchange for any hardcore Pakistani terrorist lodged in Indian jails,” Sarabjit’s wife, Sukhpreet Kaur, told PTI. Ms. Kaur said that for the family, “nothing is above the nation and we can’t go against the interests of our motherland.”[We do not want Sarabjit in exchange for terrorists: wife]

In this day and age, when displaying nationalism condemns one to the lowest levels of the Indian liberal purgatory, it takes certain amount of boldness to be so politically incorrect. To fully appreciate Sukhpreet Kaur’s admirable trait, we need to take stock of the atmosphere of surrender in which this lady living.

When a group of Tibetan protesters were planning a march from Dharmasala to the border of India and China, the Indian Govt. stopped them to prevent any embarrassment to the Chinese. China’s Prime Minister warned India, his sepoys in India amplified their master’s voice and People’s Daily of China, published from Chennai put Stakhanovite stints in censorship. In fact, the Government is so scared of Chinese “feelings”, that the Prime Minister is scared to step foot in certain parts of our own country.

If Sri Ramakrishna were alive, he would have told the following parable to Manmohan Singh: Once there lived a violent poisonous snake and when he tried to attack a monk, the monk recited a mantra and the snake lay on his feet like an earth worm. The monk initiated the snake to spiritual life and asked him not to harm anyone in the future. Observing that the snake had become non-violent, the boys in the area started throwing stones at him. Seeing no reaction they caught him by the tail and swirled and flung him on the ground and left him for dead. The snake read Michael Pollan’s book, ate just fruits and became as slim as Katrina Kaif’s waist.

About a year later the brahmachari came that way again and asked after the snake. Hearing the teacher’s voice, it came out of his hole and bowed before him with great reverence. But, the teacher asked: Why are you so thin? It can’t be mere want of food that has reduced you to this state; there must be some other reason! The snake said: The boys one day dashed me violently against the ground. How could they know I wouldn’t bite or harm anyone? The brahmachari exclaimed: What a shame! you are such a fool! You don’t know how to protect your-self. I asked you not to bite, but I didn’t forbid you to hiss. And Ramakrishma concluded: So, you must hiss at wicked people. You must frighten them lest they should do you harm. But never inject your venom into them.[THE ORTHODOX CHURCH AND ETHNO-RELIGIOUS]

The leaders who are supposed to be role models are busy displaying competitive cowardice and preaching that being chicken is a virtue. When our leaders are scared even of fanfaronade and our business leaders are scared of singing the national anthem, it is comforting to know that ordinary citizens have a mind which is without fear and hold their heads high.

PS: In fact one should not insult chickens for even they display violent behaviour occasionally.

Technorati Tags: India, Sukhpreet Kaur, China, Tibet,

NEW DELHI: The Indian Left, which takes its political cue from China, promptly echoed the line of their handlers in Beijing and asked the Manmohan Singh government not to meddle in the “internal affairs (read Tibet)” of the neighbour. The party, which raised objections over the visit US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Dharamsala, said: “The government should see that their meeting does not turn into an anti-China meeting.”

Maintaining that Tibet issue was an internal affair of China, CPI general secretary AB Bardhan said, “All countries have internal areas where situation is sometimes disturbed. There should be no interference from anyone.” This loud advocacy for the respect for “One China” and “China’s territorial integrity” is not normally evident when Beijing makes its claim to Arunachal Pradesh. The Left, it be recalled, came out with a late response when China repeated its claim late last year.

It is heartening to see a newspaper write it so bluntly, along the style of bloggers. The title of the article , “Meet Mr Bardhan, China’s spokesman in India“, alone is priceless.

Technorati Tags: China, India, Communism

Kerala Views writes about the image of the Chief Minister of Kerala

Kerala Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan has admitted that the
squabbles among his Ministers have dented the image of his Government.
What he has not said is that his lack of leadership and grip in the
administration is largely to be blamed for the disquiet in his Cabinet.

Achuthanandan is just a group leader within his party, and do not
have much sway over the Left Democratic Front constituents except when
their interests coincide. The Chief Minister also lacks administrative
experience and lacks an able team of officials to back him up in the
governance of the State.

Kerala Tips writes about the closure 
of the British Council library in Trivandrum

British library in Trivandrum
was one of the best resource for books. When I was young, I found it a
very peaceful place to spend time in learning. They also provided free
Internet service for a long time. Sadly all good things must come to an
end. So the British council decided to close it from February (they
were spending over a crore rupees per year).

What is very funny about this is the reaction from politicians. Our
chief minister visited the library ordered the British “NOT to close”
the library. Unions were formed to protect the staff at the library.
What are they going to do?  Are they going to organize strikes in
London demanding that they should operate library in Trivandrum?

Save Kerala writes about a few brain waves

Terming the UDF Government’s decision to train monkeys to climb coconut
trees as an attack on the common-man’s right to livelihood, the
government scrapped the policy since it unilaterally favored the
monkeys and the bourgeois apes. Instead, the Government decided to set
up a school to train malayalis to climb trees and pluck coconuts. In
the wake of the economic boom riding on technology revolution and
industrialization that requires education and soft-skills, the
thought-leaders of the current government saw this as a perfect answer.
Perfect reply rather.

See Also: Notes
from Kerala, (2), (3),(4)

In Night at the Museum Ben Stiller plays a watchman at the Museum of Natural History where exhibits come to life after being animated by an Egyptian artifact. You can think of Jyothi Basu as the watchman of the Museum of Dead Ideologies where various exhibits like Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Che Guevera come to life after being animated by the chanting of a few passages from The Communist Manifesto. It turns out that this geriatric curator has finally seen the light and has has revealed certain truths which were self-evident for rest of the world.

We want capital, both foreign and domestic. After all we are working in a capitalist system. Socialism is not possible now,” he said in response to a question after a meeting of the party’s state secretariat.“We had spoken about building up a classless society, but that was a long time ago,” he said. [We are expire !]

Various revolutionaries are shocked and cannot figure out why Jyothi Basu had to quit sticking his head in the sand. RSP national secretary K.Pankajakshan annouced that their revolutionaries, at least those who are alive, will continue with the head-in-the-sand policy and if the sand is not deep enough, they were willing to walk till the Gobi desert.

Kerala Chief Minister V S Achyutanandan argued that it is not a good idea to tell public that Santa Claus des not exist and chanted the Communist Gayatri mantra, “the innate strength of the working class would inevitably wipe away capitalism.”  Since the entire working class of Kerala is in “Gulf”, there was no one to hear his speech, but there are reports that Fidel Castro got up from his coffin and laughed at VS’ speech.

Jyothi Basu and the Bengali comrades should be congratulated for finally telling the truth, but the Kerala comrades are still following the Mother Teresa Design Pattern. The Mother doubted the existence of God, heaven and the soul and came to the conclusion that Jesus was not true, but still kept on saving souls for the church. The Kerala comrades too have become rich through capitalism and know very well that socialism is dead, but still keep on peddling that failed ideology.

In Night at the Museum, Ben Stiller gets help from President Teddy Roosevelt (played by Robin Williams) and he is able to control the chaos. Probably Achyutanandan needs help from President Bush (played by Will Ferell).

Such secular mud never must have been flung on anyone in the history of India. Tons of editorials were written and sting operations were conducted. We were warned that if Modi was re-elected, it would be bad for India.  We were told that there is an anti-incumbency factor in all Indian elections and Modi would definitely be out. We were told that the people who died in the Mumbai train bomb blasts were Gujaratis and so it is fine. Everything and anything was blamed on Modi.

Thankfully it is not Psephologists, Op-Ed writers, various bloggers and news anchors who decide the election results of Gujarat. Now the Gujaratis have given such a secular heartburn with the elections that no amount of Zantac 75, and Pepcid AC can cure. The fun is in reading the post-results headlines and analysis and watching the reactions of Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt and the likes. The comment from Pakistan was, “Democracy is not just about voting, it is also about protection of minorities, about human rights”. When Pakistanis talk about “democracy”, “minorities” and “human rights”, then you know it is hard to top that.

Bloggers are weeping and are trying to come to terms with the Jeet ka Saudagar and Prof. Haimanti Roy will now have to replace Anand Patwardhan’s movie with an analysis of Gujarat elections in her MIT course The Making of Modern South Asia. The elections reveal something which the pundits have not been able to predict: No one cares what the pundits think.