Peace in South Asia RE: YLH

One can be proud of one`s country and its flag and still be suspicious of flags and patriotism.

I fully agree and appreciate what Ms Roy said

Confessions of a BJP Supporter Hi Parag

Congratulations!



But there still seems to be a lot of implied blame on the actions of the socalled Muslim/‘secular’ leaders, for justifying support to the communal politics of the saffron brigade.

This is a line being taken by BJP leaders themselves. This can never be justified.

The narration of alleged actions/policies of Muslim/secular leaders are a good tool to show how wrong they are but does not in any way prove that support to the communal politics of the Sangh Parivar as a reaction can ever be justified.

But as they say ‘Deyr Aye drust aye’ - welcome to the fold

Riots re:tantra

with the comment

``The misery Muslims have visited upon the rest of the world... ``

you have only exposed your own communalism and ignorance which generally accompanies it.

re: Shah

The narration of incidence which lead to the burning of the carriage does not in any way absolve those who committed the act of burning innocent people whatever the provocation. It has to be condemned in no uncertain terms. But at the same time what happened afterwards can in no way be compared with this incidence. What has taken place during the following few days is a heineous crime which if not dealt with properly will lead to the destruction of India as we know it. Here it was not an angry mob at work. But it was an organised activity by a section of the fascist elements in our society, aided and abetted by the state machinery, which went on destroying lives on communal basis.

This is yet another sign of the rising confidenbce of the `Hindu Taliban`.

It has been said that people who condemn this carnage should also condemn the activities of the muslim fundamentalists. The boot is now on the other foot. Let us see how many condemn this act with the same ferocity as september 11 or the terrorists in Kashmir .

Ha Ha To the Axis of Evil Speech Re: Prem

``So what explains the malnutrition of kids in Iraq``

just compare the figures before and after the sanctions and u get the answer

An Indian salute for President Musharraf romair et al:

There seems to be a desire in many quarters on the chowk for third party mediation over Kashmir. Has no one heard of the story of ` two cats and a monkey`. Intelligent people should learn from history but it seems we never do. Ever eager to invite ` our masters` to solve our problems without thinking of the consequences.

In this dispute there is no innocent party accept the Kashmiris. Both countries need to look into their roles in bringing the situation to the present state. Where India needs to stop harping about ` atut ang` pakistan needs to stop talking about UN and the plebicite. We must move forward taking into considerations of the ground realities as well as the wishes of the Kashimiri people. India must realise that Kashmir cannot be kept with the force and Pakistan must stop using the Kashmiris as cannon fodder for the compulsions of its own diversionary politics.

Musharaf`s speech is welcome as far as it dares to challange the religious fundamentalism and its destructive politics inspite of the relaisation that it has been delivered to please the US masters. We should do whatever we can to strengthen this politics whoever is the messanger.

The Forgotten Children of God rishi: 12

``The fact is that while a non dalit has to score very high in the exams to become a doctor or an engineer (the most sought after education streams in India) a dalit can get the same education with just a pass in the exams.``

If your above statement is accepted as true then most of the universty courses in medicine and engineering should be occupied by the dalit community.

The fact is that you are referring to the reservation policy. The point to be noted is that inspite of reservation policy for dalits their representation (in these courses or anywhere else in the society where it really matters ) is negligible as compared to the dalit population.

I am not a very keen supporter of the present reservation system but let us not start jumping up and down if a few dalits are able to get into the system via this policy.

In Search of the Moderate Muslim re:farzana

I started reading with interest and thought you were asking right questions. Why should muslims have to prove anything as Indians and muslims are as heterogeneous in their thoughts, behaviour, political belives as any other religious group.

But as I read on I get the feeling that either you are totally confused or the whole article is an exercise to pour your heart out against one or two individuals.

A Letter Home Dear Terry

A good article which describes the true state of our societies.

But why blame only the small time landlords and not the global ones Both have the same interests.

The exploitation and igniting of religious sentiments is a game the big landlords also play ( and they are much better at it) when it suits their political/economic interests. The political need for rallying forces in the name of ‘Jehad’ against infidels who were destroying ‘our’ culture and ‘corrupting’ our women by sending them to schools and colleges, exposing them to the world etc etc has been the main cause of resurgence of religious fundamentalism in this part of the world. And once this gene is out of the bottle it is very difficult to put it back. Zia, ISI, Osama, Saudi etc is a good list but is incomplete without the big brothers.

Give due ‘credit’ where it belongs.

And don’t forget the great people who inspite of all this have not lost their heads and at the first chance they get will kick these mullahs and pandits up their proverbial.

A Time for Renewal re: minai, scout

It is a good article. The `moderates` should have the courage to speak out. But speaking out does not mean to compete with the fundamentalists on the interpertation of Quran, the meaning of this or that. This war cannot be won. The need to speak out means to tell these religious leaders to keep off the political scene ( as scout 24) says. There should be no mixing of religion with the State whether in governance, education, justice etc. Religion should be individuals private affair and a facilitator for one to relate with ones God, whatever form that may take. That is the only way forward.

Looking Without; Looking Within Re: Akhtar

A timely article.

The idea of secularism should not be dismissed as casually as you have done. After all even the founder of Pakistan claimed to work for a secular Pakistan. A state being secular does not in any way mean in curtailing citizens rights to have and practice religious beliefs at the individual level. All it means that religion and state should not intermix with each other. The mixing of the two inevitably results in the state/ploiticians using and misusing ( mostly misusing) religion to further political ends, which invariably results in a more divisive society and a tendency to move towards fundamentalism. And religion being something strong on sentiments, it is always easy to mislead people in the name of religion than other creeds. Therefore it is important that while looking for answers to Pakistan’s ( or India’s for that matter) problems the need for secularism is kept in mind.

Violent Changes Re: jawahra

“Yes, Temporal I do understand your emotional response. Yes, I agree with America`s questionable conduct in the world and the myriad miseries of the world. This was just what I felt at the time, no analysis, no intellectualization, no reasoning. Just feeling.”

I live in UK. My mother had come to visit us from India. She is 84. She was not with me when this tragedy happened. I met her four days later. She started talking about this immediately on my arrival. She was clearly disturbed by this. She said that

“..I see those towers collapsing in my sleep. It is a terrible loss of life.. just think of those innocent people.. the rise of religious fundamentalism is a dangerous trend for the whole world …..”

then she paused for a few seconds and said “ …. The arrogant way the Americans have been behaving this sort of thing was bound to happen…”

I fully agree with your feelings but the writing lacks my mother’s pause of a few seconds which does not, in any way, reduce our abhorrence of terrorism but does help put things into perspective for future actions.

Crisis and Opportunity Re : AA Minai

Your have rightly raised the questions about the US role in creating Bin Laden and the Taliban when it suited their global interests. All over the globe people are asking these questions and demanding some sort of democratic consensus for some rules for international affairs where people do not feel that they are being threatened by rich and mighty. But I am surprised at the solution you suggest. The same power (US) which you yourself suggest is part of the problem is to be entrusted with its solution. For people to have any faith that US can be trusted with this job they have to show that they are prepared to behave in a humane fashion and not trample other peoples human rights for their own economic interests. A good start will be a change of course for a just solution of the Palestine question, end to the economic blockade of Cuba and an immediate halt to the illegal bombing of Iraq.

Every Nightmare has a Reason re: Urstruly

Chowk is a strange place where ` sounds like a nice person` can mean disrespect. But thanks for the compliment. I am not aregular on chowk generally been put off because everytopic boils down to Hindu vs Muslim and/or Indians vs Pakistanis. Even if many of us disagree on many issues concerning the two people why can`t we don`t seem to be able to discuss these as grown ups.

thanks again

Every Nightmare has a Reason Re: DostMittar

To suggest that there is a reason behind an act does not always mean that one agrees with the act. One can analyse and understand the reason and still condemn an act because the act will not help to remove the reason that caused it ( if you know what I am trying to say – my English is not that good)

You also seem to be suggesting that we should not be discussing why it has been possible for such a terrible crime to be committed and how to minimise its chances in future because those suffering have the ‘pathars’ in their hands. So what is one to do – keep mum or join in the chorus ‘eye for an eye’. I do not think that will be very good idea and it is encouraging that various commentators have voiced their opinions which do not fall in line with the popular sentiment. Today’s Guardian (UK) has two such articles. Here is one of them :

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They can`t see why they are hated

Americans cannot ignore what their government does abroad

Special report: Terrorism in the US

Seumas Milne

Thursday September 13, 2001

The Guardian

Nearly two days after the horrific suicide attacks on civilian workers in New York and Washington, it has become painfully clear that most Americans simply don`t get it. From the president to passersby on the streets, the message seems to be the same: this is an inexplicable assault on freedom and democracy, which must be answered with overwhelming force - just as soon as someone can construct a credible account of who was actually responsible.

Shock, rage and grief there has been aplenty. But any glimmer of recognition of why people might have been driven to carry out such atrocities, sacrificing their own lives in the process - or why the United States is hated with such bitterness, not only in Arab and Muslim countries, but across the developing world - seems almost entirely absent. Perhaps it is too much to hope that, as rescue workers struggle to pull firefighters from the rubble, any but a small minority might make the connection between what has been visited upon them and what their government has visited upon large parts of the world.

But make that connection they must, if such tragedies are not to be repeated, potentially with even more devastating consequences. US political leaders are doing their people no favours by reinforcing popular ignorance with self-referential rhetoric. And the echoing chorus of Tony Blair, whose determination to bind Britain ever closer to US foreign policy ratchets up the threat to our own cities, will only fuel anti-western sentiment. So will calls for the defence of ``civilisation``, with its overtones of Samuel Huntington`s poisonous theories of post-cold war confrontation between the west and Islam, heightening perceptions of racism and hypocrisy.

As Mahatma Gandhi famously remarked when asked his opinion of western civilisation, it would be a good idea. Since George Bush`s father inaugurated his new world order a decade ago, the US, supported by its British ally, bestrides the world like a colossus. Unconstrained by any superpower rival or system of global governance, the US giant has rewritten the global financial and trading system in its own interest; ripped up a string of treaties it finds inconvenient; sent troops to every corner of the globe; bombed Afghanistan, Sudan, Yugoslavia and Iraq without troubling the United Nations; maintained a string of murderous embargos against recalcitrant regimes; and recklessly thrown its weight behind Israel`s 34-year illegal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as the Palestinian intifada rages.

If, as yesterday`s Wall Street Journal insisted, the east coast carnage was the fruit of the Clinton administration`s Munich-like appeasement of the Palestinians, the mind boggles as to what US Republicans imagine to be a Churchillian response.

It is this record of unabashed national egotism and arrogance that drives anti-Americanism among swaths of the world`s population, for whom there is little democracy in the current distribution of global wealth and power. If it turns out that Tuesday`s attacks were the work of Osama bin Laden`s supporters, the sense that the Americans are once again reaping a dragons` teeth harvest they themselves sowed will be overwhelming.

It was the Americans, after all, who poured resources into the 1980s war against the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul, at a time when girls could go to school and women to work. Bin Laden and his mojahedin were armed and trained by the CIA and MI6, as Afghanistan was turned into a wasteland and its communist leader Najibullah left hanging from a Kabul lamp post with his genitals stuffed in his mouth.

But by then Bin Laden had turned against his American sponsors, while US-sponsored Pakistani intelligence had spawned the grotesque Taliban now protecting him. To punish its wayward Afghan offspring, the US subsequently forced through a sanctions regime which has helped push 4m to the brink of starvation, according to the latest UN figures, while Afghan refugees fan out across the world.

All this must doubtless seem remote to Americans desperately searching the debris of what is expected to be the largest-ever massacre on US soil - as must the killings of yet more Palestinians in the West Bank yesterday, or even the 2m estimated to have died in Congo`s wars since the overthrow of the US-backed Mobutu regime. ``What could some political thing have to do with blowing up office buildings during working hours?`` one bewildered New Yorker asked yesterday.

Already, the Bush administration is assembling an international coalition for an Israeli-style war against terrorism, as if such counter-productive acts of outrage had an existence separate from the social conditions out of which they arise. But for every ``terror network`` that is rooted out, another will emerge - until the injustices and inequalities that produce them are addressed

Every Nightmare has a Reason re: Farzana

I found the poem very balanced especially when you say ` no body is born to kill`.

Although small minds will keep on talking about India vs Pakistan or Hindu vs Muslim but this is a time for serious reflection. In this context URSTRULY`s post `NEW WORLD ORDER` is very relevant and I fully agree with him that the time has come where rich/ powerful nations ( especially the US) start a re-think on their foreign policies and long term objectives.

Agra Summit and the Camera Assistant Veeresh:

started well but then got stuck into same old `pidram sultan bood`, anything that does not suit our argument is myth and every myth that suits us is history etc etc, and let pakistanis accept this and that. This does not help in any way.