The Next Step for Raj Thackerey
Am a North Indian, so ‘obviuosly’ I hate Raj Thackerey. Having said that, his situation is understandable and unsurprising. He is trying to portray himself as the rightful heir to Bal Thackerey. There is a general resentment of the migration that takes place in Mumbai from UP and Bihar and sweet Raj is encashing on the same. Bal Thackerey aimed at the Muslims and Raj Thackerey is aiming his ire at North Indians. But, frankly (and obviously) there is more to it than pure and genuine hatred against North Indians , isn’t it ?
For a person to make a mark in politics. He has to be well versed, knowledgable, respected and a person who has achieved “something”. he is a lawyer, a general, an economist etc. etc. He would not be a ‘career’ politician. For a career politician, the rules of engagement are a bit different. He will have to put in an effort to get heard. and an ordinary speech will not do it. ordinary acts will not do it. and this is why many individuals who want to grab attention will have to take extreme right-wing stand to get heard. Raj Thackerey did just that. and surprise surprise, he is not the first one to do it. Even Barack obama, the ‘peace’ man did it. Watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3oAvz1VGcE and watch Raj Thackerey in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0zT3TTNAoU
Both the above videos would show a right-wing thinking. It is required for getting attention, but has a negative impact in the long run. Raj Thackerey cannot stop the North Indian from coming to Maharashtra, and any effective measures in this regard will only increase the hatred for Marathis in North India. So what is the way forward for Raj.
For one, from the election and the dismal performance of the SS-BJP, it doesn’t take rocket science to realize that Congress gained a lot from the vote division between MNS and SS-BJP. MNS entered the legislature. the question is now what. The answer is pretty simple. Shift from Right wing politics towards the center and focus on development. Show to the people that MNS is a genuine party that cares about development and other related issues and is not just focussed on beating up hapless Biharis. If Raj Thackerey is able to carry on this transformation, he would indeed become to dominating force in Marathi Politics. Easily sidelining the SS or the BJP.
Hyderabad Acid attacker’s encounter – justice or failure of justice ?
At the time of writing this post, one of the victims of the attack was still in the ICU, her conditions was stated to be critical. Talk about the timing of the murder of the youth by the police ! Just about a day ago, the newspapers had reported about Justice Katju’s outburst against the Bombay High Court’s acquital in an acid attack case, where the high court had reduced the sentence of the accused to the term of imprisonment already undergone, but increased the fine imposed to Rs 20,000. Justice Katju was predictably appalled. He affirmed the sentence passed by the trial court and directed the accused to undergo complete sentence of three years.
So if the judiciary is so apt in convicting the accused in such a heinous attack what was the pressure on the Police to “bring the accused the justice” ? The answer according to me lies in the question itself. The Judiciary is simply not apt enough to punish. or to bring the accused to the book. And frankly even a three year term for an acid attack that would scar a girl for the rest of her life is simply not enough.
In our society, we are so divided, so vastly divided that if an event occurs that does not effect us, we put in no effort to improve it. Unfortunately, Judiciary in India suffers from such a defect. How many of us can name some of the top SC lawyers? And how many of us can name a good trial court lawyer ? The legal fraternity just like many aspects of the society in our country is nothing but top heavy. and unfortunately Justice and infact lot of other really meaningful work is done not in the upper strata of society but rather in the lower rungs of it.
The accused in this case would have been brought before the court, to whom this case is nothing more than another file number another accused and another victim. A low priority case, as it did not involve any high profile name. Is it any wonder that today people don’t believe they would get justice ?
If we had a judiciary that would pay more regard to the plight of the victims, if we had a government that would pay attention to improve the infrastructure, then the reciprocity from the people would be that there would be a population that would believe in the legal system. that unfortunately is not the case. So what we have is the concept of “instant justice” Haul up the accused and punish him then and there. The acid attacker learnt about the effectiveness of this system the hard way. It is another matter that this method has been practised, and done away with more than a century ago as being ineffective.
If the legal system is not overhauled, then such kind of incidents would only increase. and unfortunately so will increase the reports of police brutality. I am not saying that the murder of the three youth was wrong. After all there murder would deter would be attackers from carrying out such attacks. Thus achieving one of the goal of Criminal penal system!
Pakistan imploding
Let’s see, there is this nation that was created out of a false belief that the Muslims in India will be misttreated and therefore a nation of muslims cut out from the sub-sontinent is required. There was a belief that the Hindus would not treat the Muslims well.
And then Narender Modi did not prove them wrong. Not to say that all Hindus support what happened in Gujarat. Am sure the carnage against the muslims was simply for reasons that in the eyes of some justified the riots. but then again, the last time I checked, we had a democratic set up where the rule of law is supreme. That this does not happen is another debate. Anyways we are discussinig Pakistan here.
When the insurgency began in Kashmir, one of the earliest deaths, was of an Air force officerr. If I remember correctly, it was one sqaudron leader Khanna. Fresh out of Staff college in wellington. He got what was called a “choice posting.” He was shot dead waiting for a Army bus to take him to his office. There were debates, counter debates and thanks to a bureaucracy that is the worst in the world, no concrete action that was taken.
Soldiers were sent, of course, to fight the insurgents. But over the period of time the insurgency grew. And the soldiers and the civilians kept dying. One mistake which the Pakistan Army did was that it did not figure out that India is “really” rule by the bureaucrats. Not by the soldiers, or the civilians or even by the policians. India was being attacked again and again, Pakistan hoping for a beligirent reaction from India. An event just waiting to happen in the aftermath of the 1971 war. (India should have destroyed the pakistan army, just like US did after the WW2 to Japan and Germany) What Pakistan was doing was what would be expected of an injured nation that was anyways created out of hatred of India. Alas, whereas India acted incompetent, pakistan suffered from the ills of what is now being called “reverse indoctrination”
What happens when you send good soldiers, secular soldiers to indoctrinate people to give uo their lives, in the name of religion when the real motive is actually political? the people believe you and give up thier lives because you told them that dying in the right thing to do. The Americans trained Pakistan to train the Afghans to fight the Soviets. Soviets fled Afghanistan. and there existed a huge army of soldiers who would give up their lives for a cause of “discriminated” muslims. All under the control of the Pakistan. And we have a huge surge in the insurgeny in Kashmir. Trained militiamen, who are supposedly fighting a religious fight which is for all practical purpose a political fight taken to a perverted level by Pakistan. One wonders, Pakistan was created out of hatred of India. Look at it today. Economically backward. No economy. Takes a loan from IMF. being called a safe haven by the world. and having to lump it all.
So the question. Can Pakistan recover ? short answer No.
Long answer: Pakistan was created out of hatred. Not out of politcal compulsions, but hatred. Hatred the Muslims had for the Hindus. and lo and behold. apparently muslims hate christians and jews too. not to mention, not one nation in the world with a large muslim population is democratic. Pakistan consists of many distinct regions and communities. Pakistan is just about half a century old. its poor and has failed in almost all the aspects of society. It has no economy to talk of. It is being treated as a state with safe havens to the terrorists. And has today at least mare than 1/3rd of the nation outside the control of the government or the army. and of course it is fighting an unpleasant war with the enemies of the United States. as thing stand today as long as the Americans support the Pakistan Army, the army being well armed and well paid there will be no problem. But once the US does stop this. and there are reasons for US to stop, nothing, and absolutely nothing will prevent the Pakistan Civil society from collapsing. The tribal Areas are traditionally quiet free. Pakistan has nothing to trade for. It is just another market. Its not rich in resources. and its products, artistically speaking are not going to be appreciated outside of India much. For Pakistan to exist as a stable country it would be required that it co-operates with India and frankly does exactly what India wants it to do. If this does not happen then there exists no reason for Pakistan not to impode under its own weight.
war with pak is inevitable
About 300 people have perished in the recent Mumbai attacks. Recent posts on various websites have put the number of deaths in such terrorists attacks in India at more than 4000.
There have been attacks before. There are preparations going on for attacks now. And there will be attacks tomorrow. When will it stop. Apparently never. It will stop when the leaders training these terrorists have a reason to stop training them. And the reality is there exists no such reason. There is not penal action that have been effectively been taken against such terrorist in the past, nor it appears it would be taken now. In these Scenario, what are the options left with the Government ? At present, the government will show restraint, not because of any deep thinking mode. but because, at present, howsoever one may not like to believe it, but the Armed forces at present are simply not ready for an all out war with Pakistan. And of course, the raw deal given to the soldiers in the sixth pay comission would itself result in many in the forces being disgruntled. Another reason is that the security establishment in the country is today filled with our highly talented, but rusted and incompetent civil servants. Unfortunately Was is not fought by the civil servants but by the Armed forces.
So summarizing the same, the war with pakistan is not going to happen, because, a) the armed forces are not ready for it. and b) at present the decision making is done by the incompetent civil servants, who frankly have no clue what is going on in the country.Fortunately, India has a democratic setup. What that means is that these kind of terrorists attackes will result in politicians with Right wing approach being voted to power.
So in my opinion this is what is going to happen, one, the government is quietly and surely going to sort out the pay mess of the soldiers. two, good hardware is going to come from the US. Three, more soldiers are going to be recruited. Four, Pakistan is going to be attacked. It will happen. may not happen tomorrow. but it will happen.
War is a very dirty “event”. it devastates whatever comes in its way. Unfortunately, it is a reality in the sub-sontinent. We let pakistan keep its army after the 1971 war. we should have made pakistan army-less then itself. Just like Japan and Germany after the Second world war. We are paying the price of poor strategic thinking.
the attacks will not stop
The attacks, which have rocked India for so long be it the present Cong govt. or the BJP led govt. will not stop. the reasons are simply as Nik Gowing of the BBC said during his coverage of the attacks, and that being the bureaucracy that exists in India.
Lets start with understading how governance works.
Governance has many parts, it includes the police, the bureaucracy, the soldiers, the education development, the media and of course the finances. Now in all these sectors, if you look at, the best sectors are those in which there is no political interference or the interference is at the minimum. It is only those fields of the governance where the political interference is most or rather there is an effort to make sure that this wing of the government does not grow too big for its to be handled. it is this fear that has resulted in the administrative wing trying to show its superiority complex over various other government wings such as the Army or the police.
It is beyond comprehension why when the government is to give out salary, there is a disparity in the salary of civil servants and other services of the government. A same ranking civil servants gets far more than the amount as salary than an officer of the armed forces or other services as compared to the civil services. Why ? The only reason one can think of, is the superiority complex which the civil servants have over others. This superiority complex is resulting in a cockeyed system where those services such as the police or the armed services which are as important as the civil services are treated as subservient to the civilians. whats more, only a policeman or a soldier because of him being so, can best represent the proper state of the two important wings. this definitely is not the case here. History is filled with examples where those having no knowledge of handling security messing up big time. The present example of the bureaucracy trying to rule over the country is a perfect scenario.
Unless the changes are made at the top, starting right at the bureaucratic level, forget the politicians, they will get their dose at the elections. thse kinds of attacks will keep happening. An attack on the families of the bureaucrats is imminent, if they don’t reform the governance structure in this country. Pakistan is the hotbed of terrorist activities, it is slowly getting out of control of even the ISI and the Army. We are not able to answer the Naxal issue properly, how will we be able to answer this only through bureaucracy is beyond me.
Start giving the soldier some well deserved and long overdue respect or keep facing such attacks. the day when the bureaucrats are also attacked is not far. learn from the recent attacks, India is one nation, start seeing it as that. The civil services are not immune from the impact of terrorism.
