50 Days - ACT NOW!

50 Days.

50 days have passed since 26/11, a blatant violation of a sovereign India and the ideas she stands for.
Increasingly it is clear, that Pakistan has been equivocating all the time and terror is a key instrument of their state polity and policy. All we have been witnessing is stalling, fudging and denials using semantics, and Oscar Worthy performances of injured innocence from a pathetic cast of cardboard crew.

Pakistan shall do as is its wont.

The pertinent question before India and Indians is: What do we, as a nation do now ?

Let us admit that we have carried our vain Nehruvian follies too far, and also acknowledge the fact that Pakistan is a hostile neighbour that is at war with us even if by unconventional means.

The state policies in Pakistan are unlikely to change towards any known benchmarks of civilization any time soon. It is a long way off from economic or socio-political stability and needs an external threat to string together its notion of nationhood and if that can weave in Islam too, so much the better since they then have a connect with Jinnah and his rationale for their nationhood. Kashmir or any issue handy would do very well, thank you.

What would a country do when at war with another?

Cease all exchanges, diplomatic, trade, cultural and raise its defences.

The defences that we need to build up in this kind of conflict would need to be built around predicting, preventing and also remedying terror. This means a completely different level of sensing, equipping, training of forces and military and political leadership.

Let us also recognize that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda stand just 450 Kilometres from Srinagar (NOT the border or LOC ) and that is a very small distance from an unconventional and toxic enemy that has the ability to recruit, arm, support and propel fighting units into our territory in any guise.
The talk of any let up in Kashmir is plain stupidity on our part.

This malignant force is fully capable of displacing civil administration in Pakistan with active collusion of state forces in any part of Pakistan and is not bound by any conventional limitations.

Let us also not discount their willing accessories in Pakistan and India in the form of the underworld and the other anti national forces operating on the principle of enemy's enemy being a friend.

Let us also recognize another key force multiplier readily available to this enemy.

The Indian underworld with is epicentre in Mumbai is an ardent facilitator of no ordinary means, that makes things possible for them. It enjoys a very high level of political patronage in India, which is obvious from the fact that we have been utterly unsuccessful in extraditing or taking out Dawood and his henchmen who remain safely ensconced in the same neighbourhood as Mr.Zardari and his gang in Karachi.

Not only that, they still manage to control a crew in Mumbai, what should essentially be hostile territory for them. It is plain common sense that these desperadoes are able to do so only because they are secure in the knowledge that they have an umbrella over them.

Isn't it ludicrous that Indian intelligence and security forces are unable to drive mortal fear into these operatives when they can easily do so for other citizens of this country? The identities of these key operatives are well known to the law enforcers who in other cases can be a law unto themselves.

Contrast this with the retrieval of Nazi war criminals by Israel from all corners in the world when it counted and subjecting them to trials in Israel.

The focus of common citizens of this country needs to be decriminalizing the politics of our country and getting rid of these hyenas who protect these desperadoes, through the ballot. This is going to be the acid test for us as ordinary Indians this coming poll.

The media needs to play a very important role in asking the right questions without fear or favour to help the public identify these treacherous individuals in the guise of politicians and public servants, who for their vested interest have been nurturing these criminals.

This is the clear and present danger.

No longer can we abdicate our responsibility and expect the rest of the system to deliver what they have been encouraging either by omission or commission for all these years.

As for dealing with Pakistan, let us not allow it to occupy undeserved mind space and
Just deal with it as we would with an enemy until it shows any serious intent of following a policy of mutual respect and accepts internationally accepted norms for responsible nations as the benchmark for its conduct.

Supporting civil movements in uncivil countries in no ones obligation and cannot be demanded as a divine right. Let them do the right things before acting righteous.

Let us also deliver a brief but mighty reminder that we shall support our intentions with actions and deliver justice to them at their doorstep if forces inimical to peace choose to engage us or our anywhere in the world through violence.
Justice too needs a calling card when the other party is deaf and delinquent.

Sacrce Sanity

Here is a letter to the editor of DAWN from a reader in Pakistan.
I hope there are more such voices in Pakistan.

Quote
Thinking outside the box


By Shandana Khan Mohmand

IF there is anything that the Mumbai terror attacks have made clear, it is that it’s time to think outside the box.

The manner in which we in Pakistan have thought, spoken and acted so far has led us here. If we want to move away from this spot, the same conventional thought process and attitude is no longer going to work. A dramatic shift is now required in the way we perceive our region and conceive our identity.

First: we need to be less defensive. There are many reasons for this, not least of which is the fact that it simply makes us look stupid. It is one thing to insist that you need more evidence in order to initiate action. It is quite another to question each piece of mounting evidence, especially in the face of a general popular acceptance of the fact that there are organisations here in Pakistan that openly purport the ideology that they are being accused of, about which we choose to do little.

Imagine this: a Pakistani organisation is so implicated in such activities that the United Nations actually sees fit to declare it a terrorist organisation, but we sit around and let it operate freely and openly until we get news of this declaration, at which point we spring into action.

What were we thinking until now? The banners hanging from most lamp-posts in Lahore for the last few weeks, asking people to contribute their “qurbani hides” to the organisation should demonstrate well the unfettered operations that this group enjoyed.

Being defensive, however, may be a hard behavioural trait to alter because it is firmly embedded even in our everyday social interactions. Mohammad Hanif , the brilliant author of A Case of Exploding Mangoes made a fantastic reference in a BBC article to “that uncle that you get stranded with at a family gathering when everybody else has gone to sleep but there is still some whisky left in the bottle” in describing Musharraf’s behaviour when he announced his coup against himself last year.

Taking this analogy further, this quintessentially Pakistani uncle has two other very familiar traits. One, he is extremely defensive about every one of his own identities — nationality, religion, sect, class, career — and has a deep distrust of all those who inhabit the realm of the “other”. And two, he resolutely believes that the only verification any fact needs is for it to be emitting from his mouth. Musharraf suffered heavily from this delusion, but so do so many of our other uncles, those in our homes, those at our parties, and those currently issuing statements on TV.

Second, we need to stop acting in a merely reactionary manner. The “if they were in our place they would have behaved in the same way” attitude isn’t going to get us very far. Many of us tried to point that out to the Pakistani government all the way back in May 1998 when India first tested its nuclear bomb.

Our government thought for about two weeks and then chose to act in exactly the same way, rather than to secure its position on the moral high horse by backing away from such childish tit-for-tat arguments and games.

Our ‘outside-the-box’ collective thinking now needs to demonstrate that though it may be true that if some other country had been in our position they may have acted with misguided nationalist bravado, we are capable of acting differently, not because it is demanded or expected of us, but because this is the right thing to do and because we take such terrorist attacks very seriously, both at home and abroad. The moral high horse may be the only thing that Pakistan can have going for it right now, and yet, even that is being squandered away by the defensiveness of those who claim to speak on its behalf.

Third, Pakistan needs to accept a very harsh reality — it is not the equal of India, and the belief that we can be compared has stunted our development no end. We cannot win a war against it, we cannot compare the instability of our political system to the stability of theirs, we cannot hope to compete economically with what is a booming economy well on its way to becoming a global economic power, and we certainly cannot compare the conservativeness of our society to the open pluralism of their everyday life.

Accepting these realities may allow Pakistan to give up its nationalistic bravado and posturing, and may actually allow it to accept its more realistic role in this region — one that requires that it live in peace with India, that it not unnecessarily provoke its wrath and that it understands that its most beneficial economic strategy would be to get in on the boom next door.

For that we need to think outside the box — outside the box of the two-nation theory, outside the box of the violence of 1947, and outside the box of the ill-conceived wars of the last six decades.

The writer is a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.

Unquote

Hitting Terror where it hurts

Here is an article from a professor at IIM-B outlining real measures that we as Indians can exercise for dealing with Pakistan's intransigence and the mere lip service that most of the economic powers of the world have delivered in response to 26/11. I reproduce this article as I am sure he would overlook the transgression.
Interesting food for thought.
Cheers
Indian Vitchdokta
A friend of mine had emailed me this brilliant email which is making the rounds in the online community. It is apparently written by a professor of IIM-Bangalore. Below is the full article:
=============================

I did not anticipate the huge response my inbox received for the article slamming Pakistan. Many of those who wrote in have sought concrete steps to tackle the Terror Central.
The terror attack on world citizens at Mumbai has created revulsion and outrage all over the world. It is imperative that India seize the opportunity provided to destabilise Pakistan.
A stable Pakistan is not in the interest of world peace, leave alone India. Army controls the country and owns its economy.
A significant portion of its GDP is due to army-controlled entities (See: Military Inc - Inside Pakistan's Military Economy, by Ayesha Siddiqa; OUP; 2007). One can easily say that Pakistan economy and its Army/ISI are synonymous.
Unless this elementary fact is internalised, we are not going anywhere. This implies we should stop talking of a stable Pakistan since a stable Pakistan means multiple attacks on many more cities of India by that rogue organisation ISI, which is the core of the Pakistan Army and the heart of Pakistan's economy.
Let us not even assume that Zardari is in control. Poor man -- he did not trust his own investigators to probe his wife's assassination -- he wanted Scotland Yard to do the job. Now he blabbers that if his investigators are satisfied, then he will initiate action against terrorists sitting inside Pakistan.
Periodically, the Pakistan Army likes to present some useful idiots (as Lenin would have called them) as elected representatives and we swoon over such events.

India should take the following steps to destabilise the economy of Pakistan:

1. Identify the major export items of Pakistan (like Basmati rice, carpets, etc) and provide zero export tax or even subsidise them for export from India. Hurt Pakistan on the export front.
2. Identify the major countries providing arms to Pakistan and arm twist them. Tell Brazil and Germany (currently planning to supply massive defense items to Pakistan) that it will impact their ability to invest in India. Tell Germany that retail license to Metro will be off and other existing projects will be in jeopardy.
3. Incidentally, after the arrival of Coke and Pepsi in China, the human rights violations of China are not talked about much by US government organs. Think it is a coincidence? Unless we use our markets to arm-twist arms exporters to Pakistan, we will not achieve our objectives.
4. Tell American companies that for every 5% increase in FDI limit for them, their government needs to reduce equipping Pakistan by $5 billion. That is real politics, not whining. Let us remember that funds are in desperate search of emerging markets and not the other way about. Let us also remember that international economics is politics by another name.
5. Create assets to print/distribute their currency widely inside their country. To some extent, Telgi types can be used to outsource this activity. Or just drop their notes in remote areas.
6. Pressurise IMF to add additional conditionality to the loans given to them or at least do not vote for their loans.
7. Create assets within Pakistan to destabilise Karachi stock market - it is already in a shambles.
8. Cricket and Bollywood are the opium of the Indian middle classes. Both have been adequately manipulated/ controlled by the D-company since the eighties. Chase the D-company money in cricket/ Bollywood and punish by burning D-assets in India instead of trying to have them auctioned by the IT department when nobody comes to bid for it.
9. Provide for capital punishment to those who fund terror and help in that. We have the division in the finance ministry to monitor money laundering, etc. It is important that terror financing is taken seriously and fully integrated into money laundering monitoring systems and this division is provided with much larger budget and human resources.. And it should coordinate with RAW.
10. Encourage and allow scientists/ academicians/ elites of Pakistan to opt for Indian passport and widely publicise that fact since it will hurt their self-respect and dignity. There will be a long queue to get Indian passports -- many will jump to get our passport -- since they will not be stopped at international airports. It is rumoured that Adnan Sami wants one. Do not give passports to all -- make it a prized possession. Let it hurt the army- and ISI-controlled country. This one step will destroy their identity and self-confidence.
11. Discourage companies from India from investing in Pakistan, particularly IT companies, till Pakistan stops exporting its own IT (international terrorism).
12. In all these, it is important that we do not bring in the domestic religious issues. The target is the terror central, namely Pakistan, and if there are elements helping them here then they also should be punished -- irrespective of religious labels. If Pakistan is dismantled and the idea of Pakistan is gone, many of our domestic issues will also be sorted out.
Will the Indian elite go for the jugular or just light more candles and scream at the formless/ nameless political class before TV cameras?
It is going to be a long haul and may be in a decade or so, we can find a solution to our existential crisis of being attacked by barbarians from the West. We need to combine strategy and patience and completely throw to the dustbin the 'Gujral Doctrine' by that mumbling prime minister about treating younger brothers with equanimity. The doctrine essentially suggests that if we are slapped on both the cheeks we should feel bad that we do not have a third cheek to show.
He, according to security experts, seems to have dismantled our human intelligent assets inside Pakistan, which has resulted in the gory death of thousands of Indian citizens in the last few years.
Such is our strategic thinking in this complex world since our political class is not adequately briefed and the elite don't think through issues. Better to be simple in our talks and vicious in our actions rather than the other way.
Hopefully, this November attack will create a new vibrant India capable of taking care of its own interests.
The author is professor of finance and control, Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, and can be contacted at vaidya@iimb.ernet.in. The views are personal and do not reflect those of his organisation.

================================
But today, every corporate captain is angry, and so are the celebrities who people Page 3 of newspapers, due largely because the attacks on the three top hotels were directly aimed at those who frequent these places, for business or pleasure (contrast this with the scant coverage of the carnage at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, for example, where commoners were involved).

All the same, the bleeding-heart liberals would be back to their routine ways after a few days. They will lament that the captured terrorist has not been given his favourite food and not allowed to watch TV or use his cell phone; they will say his human rights are violated. Just wait for the chorus.

Of course, this time it will be between Page 3 and the jholawalas (activists) and that should be an interesting match to watch, but that's another story.

In the last ten years, not a single session of any seminar sponsored by the CII or Ficci or business/general journals has focussed on terrorism. When this writer once broached the importance of talking about it, a senior business captain said it is for the government to deal with.

Many of those seminars gave importance to Musharraf and now Zardari, as if they are going to provide any solution when they are a part of the problem.

Now, at least, terrorism is being realised as a problem facing the country.

Let us summarise what the real situation is and what the corporate sector should do if we are serious in fighting terrorism on our soil.

1. Recognise and treat Pakistan as a terrorist state. The state policy of Pakistan is terrorism and their single-point programme is to destroy India. This needs to be internalised by every business baron including the owners of media.

2. Now, the elite of Pakistan are more angry, since India is growing at 7% and they are given CCC rating and stiff conditions for borrowing from the IMF.

Many an academic from that country, who I have met in global conferences, has openly lamented that nobody talks about Indo-Pak relations anymore, but only Indo-China or Indo-American, etc. They want to be equal but they are in deep abyss.

3.. Pakistan is the only territory in the world where an army has a whole country under its control. This is an important issue since studies have found that a large number of corporates in Pakistan are ultimately owned by the Fauji Foundation (FF), Army Welfare Trust (AWT) Bahria Foundation (BF), Shaheen Foundation (SF) all owned by different wings of armed forces (See paper presented by Dr Ayesha Siddiqa-Agha on 'Power, Perks, Prestige And Privileges: Military's Economic Activities In Pakistan' in The International Conference on Soldiers in Business -- Military as an Economic Actor; Jakarta, October 17-19, 2000).

Hence, do not try to think of Pakistan without its army, irrespective of who rules that country temporarily and nominally. At least 70% of the market capitalisation of the Karachi stock exchange is owned by the army and related groups.

4. There are three groups in India, who are obsessed with friendship with Pakistan. One is the oldies born in that part before partition and who are nostalgic about the Lahore havelis, halwas and mujras. The second is the Bollywood and other assorted groups, who look at it as a big market. The Dawood gang has financed enough of these useful idiots. The third is the candle light holding bleeding heart liberals (BHLs) who cannot imagine India doing well without its younger brother taken care of.

All three have been proved wrong hundreds of times, but they are also opinion makers. Shun them, avoid them and ridicule them.

5. We should categorically, unambiguously, unequivocally boycott Pakistan in all aspects for a decade or more. Be it art, music, economy, commerce, or other hand-holding activities. That army-controlled state has to realise that it has done enough damage to global civilisation.

More than 100 acts/attempts of terror recorded in the world since 9/11 have had their roots in Pakistan. More than 40% of the prisoners in Guantanamo are Pakistanis.

6. We should recognise that it is our war and nobody in the world is going to wage it on our behalf. What the Americans are thinking, or what the Britishers are going to do, will not help. A determined country should have a sense of dignity and independence to fight its war.

We should stop interviewing leaders from that country who mouth the same inanities that "you have not produced any proof." The Government of India should perhaps create a museum of proof between India Gate and North Block.

I am amazed that a country of a billion is required even to furnish proof. If one-sixth of humanity says that the terrorist state of Pakistan is the root cause of global terrorism -- it is factual. Let us not fall into the trap of providing proof to the culprits.

7. We should realise that a united Pakistan is a grave threat to the existence of India. Hence, we should do everything possible to break up Pakistan into several units. This is required to be done not only for our interest, but for world peace.

8. We have made a grave blunder by suggesting in the international fora that "Pakistan is also a victim of terror." That is a grave error and it will haunt us for decades. They are perpetrators and our government is in deep illusion if it tries to distinguish between organs of power in that country thinking it is like India.

There is only one organ, namely its army (with ISI as a sub-organ) in that country, which owns and controls at least 70% of the GDP in that country.

If we want the world to treat Pakistan for what it is, then we should start practising it. Always call it the 'terrorist state of Pakistan' and never have any illusion that it is going to be any different.

If corporate India, including electronic/ print media, starts practising this, we should see results in a few years. Are the elites listening?


The author is professor of finance and control, Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, and can be contacted at vaidya@iimb.ernet.in. The views are personal and do not reflect those of his organisation.

Under license from www.3dsyndication.com

In Continuation - Of Political Correctness

Here is a piece of advice from Bill Gates that connects with my piece of Nov.29,2008 "Terror and its Tenuous Explanations" and the following one on parenting.
It is time we got rid of this monkey on our back that is political correctness which seems to be the opiate of the season.
Enjoy
Arun

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school

He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and
listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try
delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll
give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that
on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Terror and 2009

Our neighbors on each border espouse varying degree of hostility to us a s a nation.
The change in dispensation augurs well for a resolution on the east.
While we may talk about this being aided and abetted by forces that have a rabid anti India posture we need to examine and calibrate our approach to relationships with each of these nations with whom we were in step not so long ago and understand why they should now be indifferent if not insidious to our security concerns
Is there something about us that threatens them or are there other reasons for us to take a good long look in the mirror?
Is there something that makes them see us unlike we perceive ourselves, a liberal, peaceful, fun loving, compassionate and accommodating people whose leadership is often willing to do foolhardy acts of charity in the hope of being seen as statesmen.
It does sound a bit cowardly to raise such issues at a time when we should have been pounding targets in Pakistan that are the cradle to a vicious lunatics who are threatened by peoples' ability to make their own choices.
Nevertheless we would also have to examine these aspects of the problem simultaneously and if we in our rise to a greater global impact and sidestep the kind of moronic mistakes that the US seems to have a penchant for.
Most of what we are fighting today is the fruit of these two naieve approaches.
What are the principles that must govern our foreign policy and indeed our domestic choices in the way we govern ourselves?
The results of mistaking tactic and strategy for principles are there for all of us to see.
The certainity that is obvious is that change is urgently needed.
Let us ask ourselves these questions singularly and collectively.
The answers are too important to put off for tomorrow.

What is right with our world - why do we shy from talking about it?

It is clear that the only real weapon against terror is liberalism.
Nothing embodies liberalism better than our proud nation.
Eight thriving religions, that co-exist, mostly with respect for each other.

Mutual respect is the prescription that lets a thousand flowers bloom and sorely missing in today’s world.
The fact is that the Indian muslim population represents a significant number of the global muslim population.
Also that side from perhaps Turkey, the only muslims that have experienced life in a liberal democracy.

This is a model that needs to be seen heard and experienced by the rest of the muslim world.
Often people living in closed environments cannot envision another paradigm, since they know no other than their own.
The best bet perhaps is for the world to hear from Indian muslims about the fundamental freedoms that they enjoy under the Indian constitution.
No matter how flawed they may look, it is more than any of the others have know or believed possible.
Let us not forget to talk about what we have done right , there are anyway enough people who wont let you forget what went wrong.
As they say nothing can stop an idea.
Its time has come.

What do we do now?

Here is what I think are our best options:

01.Cease all diplomatic and any kind of relations with Pakistan NOW.
02.Let the Pakistani people sort out their internal problems one way or another - it isn't our divine duty to help those who can't help themselves, Even god doesn't.Fortify ourselves and address our security issues immediately , while treating Pakistan as a hostile nation who has declared war on us.We could learn lessons on this from the US and others who have successfully precluded these since 9/11
03.Make sure that we eradicate the underworld threat in India which will deprive such fractricidal forces from a fertile playground. Choke their money flows and the drug trade by going for its jugular.
04.Call Pakistan's bluff by letting US deal with the Terror camps - let us not be distraction and also allay our friend's Nuclear trepidations

Malodorous Cocktail

The bestselling sleaze cocktail that was concocted and perfected in the bar that is Maharashtra Politics by a rogues gallery of chief ministers between crime, business and politics has now spilled across the tableau of India. It has also gone malodorous and is choking the nostrils of the political masters in Delhi who turned a blind eye for their own ends.
Just like criminalization of politics marginalized he politicians themselves in India, the politicians in Pakistan now stand marginalized by their terror proteges.
The harvest season is here.
The tragedy is that the bill is always footed by the average citizen of these nations who is artless to the ways of these rapacious rascals.
If there are any sane or well intentioned leaders around and indeed capable of action the time for a purge is now.
If there are none, as i fear, god save this country.
While the people will eventually triumph, as good always trumps evil, in good measure if not completely, the transition is neither painless nor self propelled.
The time that this transformation will take is indeed going to be proportionate to the price that we are willing to pay in terms of personal and social change.
Now is the time for deep introspection and getting out of the victim mentality and resolute action.
Are we still going to sit on the sidelines and wait for an angel in white to appear while we curse the cussed?
Or are we going to decide to sully our hands and pick up the shovel and go to work?
Are we going to ask righteous and intelligent questions and pump up the rhetoric or speak to the conscience and fight the good fight?
Are we going to retire or inspire?
Loving is a lot of work, more so when you love a country and not just an individual.
Let us consign to the dustbin or history these un-worthies that are hectoring us about their righteousness from their pulpits in New Delhi that have Z+ security rings, shielded by our brightest and best sons and daughters, while their own are busy gracing the Page-3 circuits secure in their pompous pedigree.
The toil is going to be long and hard, tears will flow sometimes in agony and other times in joy.
Self doubt will gnaw at us when we pause for rest and look behind on the distance we have covered but we must claw on forward.
Betrayals may happen again but then, but descend into the garbage heap round the corner we shall not.
We're made of sterner stuff.We are Indians.

Lessons from the US Experience post 9/11

Here are two communications from Ajay Kumbhat, Mumbai which are valuable insights into what we could do in dealing with Terror and its purveyors in defence of our motherland. These are essentially

• President Bush's address in the immediate aftermath
• A presidential order outlining steps that could be taken involving the citizenry

This is essentially a copy of his exchange with Arnav at Times Now.

Dear Arnab

First of all thanks. I have found a voice in times Now. I hope all Indians with anger and anguish inside have found a new voice. Please do not give up. I am quoting hereunder an extract from President Bush's address- This is definitely a difficult time and a test for our nation- lets learn and take a lesson from here, a new fight for freedom, freedom from terror.

With what is quoted hereunder I am wondering if our leaders felt any pain, grief or shared or saluted the ultimate sacrifice of our beloved soldiers, or more even if they educated enough and hence qualified to lead.

At the least our countries politicians can "maro nakal" form here to save their faces and.....

To your 5 questions- my answer is "we will do whatever is required, be who ever we need to be and take on anyone whoever...". and my suggestion is to make 2 years of National Service compulsory.

There is a serious need to amend the constitution on accountability of our leaders. We have enuf laws and we can amend them suitably to empower our actions...we need action and not more confusion.....

Jai Hind

ajay

"QUOTE"

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Speaker, Mr. President Pro Tempore, members of Congress, and fellow Americans:

In the normal course of events, Presidents come to this chamber to report on the state of the Union. Tonight, no such report is needed. It has already been delivered by the American people.

We have seen it in the courage of passengers, who rushed terrorists to save others on the ground -- passengers like an exceptional man named Todd Beamer. And would you please help me to welcome his wife, Lisa Beamer, here tonight. (Applause.)

We have seen the state of our Union in the endurance of rescuers, working past exhaustion. We have seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers -- in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. We have seen the decency of a loving and giving people who have made the grief of strangers their own.

My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of our Union -- and it is strong. (Applause.)

Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done. (Applause.)

I thank the Congress for its leadership at such an important time. All of America was touched on the evening of the tragedy to see Republicans and Democrats joined together on the steps of this Capitol, singing "God Bless America." And you did more than sing; you acted, by delivering $40 billion to rebuild our communities and meet the needs of our military.

Speaker Hastert, Minority Leader Gephardt, Majority Leader Daschle and Senator Lott, I thank you for your friendship, for your leadership and for your service to our country. (Applause.)

And on behalf of the American people, I thank the world for its outpouring of support. America will never forget the sounds of our National Anthem playing at Buckingham Palace, on the streets of Paris, and at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.

We will not forget South Korean children gathering to pray outside our embassy in Seoul, or the prayers of sympathy offered at a mosque in Cairo. We will not forget moments of silence and days of mourning in Australia and Africa and Latin America.

Nor will we forget the citizens of 80 other nations who died with our own: dozens of Pakistanis; more than 130 Israelis; more than 250 citizens of India; men and women from El Salvador, Iran, Mexico and Japan; and hundreds of British citizens. America has no truer friend than Great Britain. (Applause.) Once again, we are joined together in a great cause -- so honored the British Prime Minister has crossed an ocean to show his unity of purpose with America. Thank you for coming, friend. (Applause.)

On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. Americans have known wars -- but for the past 136 years, they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war -- but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning. Americans have known surprise attacks -- but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in a single day -- and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack.

Americans have many questions tonight. Americans are asking: Who attacked our country? The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al Qaeda. They are the same murderers indicted for bombing American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and responsible for bombing the USS Cole.

Al Qaeda is to terror what the mafia is to crime. But its goal is not making money; its goal is remaking the world -- and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere.

The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics -- a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam. The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans, and make no distinction among military and civilians, including women and children.

This group and its leader -- a person named Osama bin Laden -- are linked to many other organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries. They are recruited from their own nations and neighborhoods and brought to camps in places like Afghanistan, where they are trained in the tactics of terror. They are sent back to their homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction.

The leadership of al Qaeda has great influence in Afghanistan and supports the Taliban regime in controlling most of that country. In Afghanistan, we see al Qaeda's vision for the world.

Afghanistan's people have been brutalized -- many are starving and many have fled. Women are not allowed to attend school. You can be jailed for owning a television. Religion can be practiced only as their leaders dictate. A man can be jailed in Afghanistan if his beard is not long enough.

The United States respects the people of Afghanistan -- after all, we are currently its largest source of humanitarian aid -- but we condemn the Taliban regime. (Applause.) It is not only repressing its own people, it is threatening people everywhere by sponsoring and sheltering and supplying terrorists. By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder.

And tonight, the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban: Deliver to United States authorities all the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in your land. (Applause.) Release all foreign nationals, including American citizens, you have unjustly imprisoned. Protect foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers in your country. Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, and hand over every terrorist, and every person in their support structure, to appropriate authorities. (Applause.) Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating.

These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. (Applause.) The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.

I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It's practiced freely by many millions of Americans, and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. (Applause.) The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them. (Applause.)

Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated. (Applause.)

Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.

They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa.

These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends. They stand against us, because we stand in their way.

We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions -- by abandoning every value except the will to power -- they follow in the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way, to where it ends: in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies. (Applause.)

Americans are asking: How will we fight and win this war? We will direct every resource at our command -- every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every necessary weapon of war -- to the disruption and to the defeat of the global terror network.

This war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with a decisive liberation of territory and a swift conclusion. It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat.

Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. (Applause.) From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.

Our nation has been put on notice: We are not immune from attack. We will take defensive measures against terrorism to protect Americans. Today, dozens of federal departments and agencies, as well as state and local governments, have responsibilities affecting homeland security. These efforts must be coordinated at the highest level. So tonight I announce the creation of a Cabinet-level position reporting directly to me -- the Office of Homeland Security.

And tonight I also announce a distinguished American to lead this effort, to strengthen American security: a military veteran, an effective governor, a true patriot, a trusted friend -- Pennsylvania's Tom Ridge. (Applause.) He will lead, oversee and coordinate a comprehensive national strategy to safeguard our country against terrorism, and respond to any attacks that may come.

These measures are essential. But the only way to defeat terrorism as a threat to our way of life is to stop it, eliminate it, and destroy it where it grows. (Applause.)

Many will be involved in this effort, from FBI agents to intelligence operatives to the reservists we have called to active duty. All deserve our thanks, and all have our prayers. And tonight, a few miles from the damaged Pentagon, I have a message for our military: Be ready. I've called the Armed Forces to alert, and there is a reason. The hour is coming when America will act, and you will make us proud. (Applause.)

This is not, however, just America's fight. And what is at stake is not just America's freedom. This is the world's fight. This is civilization's fight. This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom.

We ask every nation to join us. We will ask, and we will need, the help of police forces, intelligence services, and banking systems around the world. The United States is grateful that many nations and many international organizations have already responded -- with sympathy and with support. Nations from Latin America, to Asia, to Africa, to Europe, to the Islamic world. Perhaps the NATO Charter reflects best the attitude of the world: An attack on one is an attack on all.

The civilized world is rallying to America's side. They understand that if this terror goes unpunished, their own cities, their own citizens may be next. Terror, unanswered, can not only bring down buildings, it can threaten the stability of legitimate governments. And you know what -- we're not going to allow it. (Applause.)

Americans are asking: What is expected of us? I ask you to live your lives, and hug your children. I know many citizens have fears tonight, and I ask you to be calm and resolute, even in the face of a continuing threat.

I ask you to uphold the values of America, and remember why so many have come here. We are in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them. No one should be singled out for unfair treatment or unkind words because of their ethnic background or religious faith. (Applause.)

I ask you to continue to support the victims of this tragedy with your contributions. Those who want to give can go to a central source of information, libertyunites.org, to find the names of groups providing direct help in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

The thousands of FBI agents who are now at work in this investigation may need your cooperation, and I ask you to give it.

I ask for your patience, with the delays and inconveniences that may accompany tighter security; and for your patience in what will be a long struggle.

I ask your continued participation and confidence in the American economy. Terrorists attacked a symbol of American prosperity. They did not touch its source. America is successful because of the hard work, and creativity, and enterprise of our people. These were the true strengths of our economy before September 11th, and they are our strengths today. (Applause.)

And, finally, please continue praying for the victims of terror and their families, for those in uniform, and for our great country. Prayer has comforted us in sorrow, and will help strengthen us for the journey ahead.

Tonight I thank my fellow Americans for what you have already done and for what you will do. And ladies and gentlemen of the Congress, I thank you, their representatives, for what you have already done and for what we will do together.

Tonight, we face new and sudden national challenges. We will come together to improve air safety, to dramatically expand the number of air marshals on domestic flights, and take new measures to prevent hijacking. We will come together to promote stability and keep our airlines flying, with direct assistance during this emergency. (Applause.)

We will come together to give law enforcement the additional tools it needs to track down terror here at home. (Applause.) We will come together to strengthen our intelligence capabilities to know the plans of terrorists before they act, and find them before they strike. (Applause.)

We will come together to take active steps that strengthen America's economy, and put our people back to work.

Tonight we welcome two leaders who embody the extraordinary spirit of all New Yorkers: Governor George Pataki, and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. (Applause.) As a symbol of America's resolve, my administration will work with Congress, and these two leaders, to show the world that we will rebuild New York City. (Applause.)

After all that has just passed -- all the lives taken, and all the possibilities and hopes that died with them -- it is natural to wonder if America's future is one of fear. Some speak of an age of terror. I know there are struggles ahead, and dangers to face. But this country will define our times, not be defined by them. As long as the United States of America is determined and strong, this will not be an age of terror; this will be an age of liberty, here and across the world. (Applause.)

Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom -- the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time -- now depends on us. Our nation -- this generation -- will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail. (Applause.)

It is my hope that in the months and years ahead, life will return almost to normal. We'll go back to our lives and routines, and that is good. Even grief recedes with time and grace. But our resolve must not pass. Each of us will remember what happened that day, and to whom it happened. We'll remember the moment the news came -- where we were and what we were doing. Some will remember an image of a fire, or a story of rescue. Some will carry memories of a face and a voice gone forever.

And I will carry this: It is the police shield of a man named George Howard, who died at the World Trade Center trying to save others. It was given to me by his mom, Arlene, as a proud memorial to her son. This is my reminder of lives that ended, and a task that does not end. (Applause.)

I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it. I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people.

The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them. (Applause.)

Fellow citizens, we'll meet violence with patient justice -- assured of the rightness of our cause, and confident of the victories to come. In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may He watch over the United States of America.

Thank you. (Applause.)

UNQUOTE

Homeland Security - Every American Can Help

Dear Arnab

I am quoting some of the steps that the US admin took to create a platform for a common citizen to participate in the Home land Security efforts. Lets build more information and keep summarising our take for our India...

please count me in your objective...

Ajay

QUOTE

Today's Presidential Action

- Americans are looking for ways to get involved in the war against terrorism on the home front. The President announced two new initiatives today to give citizens new opportunities to support Homeland Security efforts, and to help every American better prepare to respond to terrorist attacks.

- The President announced that the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) will support homeland security in the coming year in three major areas: public safety; public health; and disaster mitigation and preparedness. CNCS proposes to mobilize more than 20,000 Senior Corps and AmeriCorps participants in FY 2002 to support these efforts.

- President Bush also created the Presidential Task Force on Citizen Preparedness in the War Against Terrorism. Within 40 days, the Task Force will make recommendations to help prepare Americans in their homes, neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, places of worship and public places from the potential consequences of terrorist attacks. The Task Force will also recommend ways for Americans to support local officials, including in police departments, fire departments and community health centers, who are often the first to respond to a terrorist attack. The Task Force will be co-chaired by the President's Homeland Security and Domestic Policy advisers and will consist of the relevant Federal agency heads.

Background on New Service Options to Support Homeland Security

- Supporting Public Safety: CNCS proposes to provide more than 10,000 additional Senior Corps and AmeriCorps participants to support police departments, fire departments, and other local agencies such as parks and recreation departments. These participants would free up local personnel to meet their front line responsibilities by performing administrative tasks and other functions that can be performed by non-commissioned officers.

- Supporting Public Healh: CNCS proposes to provide more than 5,000 additional Senior Corps and AmeriCorps members to support public health agencies in outreach and information dissemination and administrative support. Resources will be targeted at low-income communities.

- Supporting Disaster Preparedness: CNCS proposes to provide more than 5,000 additional Senior Corps and AmeriCorps participants in disaster preparedness and mitigation. AmeriCorps and Senior Corps volunteers have a long track record of working with FEMA and other relief agencies in helping communities to respond to disasters.

UNQUOTE

Parents - Points to Ponder

The Outrage felt by Mr.Unnikrishnan and Mrs.Kavita Karkare is eminently justified and mirrored in our hearts.
Here is a pertinent question that we should be asking ourselves:
Karmbir Kang the Valiant GM at the Taj, Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Gajendra Singh , Hemant Karkare, Salaskar, Ashok Kamte et all.
We admire these people and thier extraordinary sense of purpose.
What do you think their parents inculcated in them for values?
Are we as parents consciously incubating the same ?
Wouldn't that be fitting homage to these awesome Indians?
What is your converstaion most often like? Are we indeed even in syncronicity with our children ?
That which we sow today, we shall harvest tommorrow.
The parents of these heroes surely understood this and how.
Step Back. Think.

It Exists - Right to Not Vote

A frined of mine Mr.V V Lakhani, just forwarded me an interesting mail from a Gentleman called Mitesh Dhami:

Quote
Did you know?
Section 49-O of the Constitution

Did you know that there is a system in our constitution, as per the 1969 act, in section '49-O' that a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his identity, get his finger marked, and convey the presiding election officer that he / she doesn't want to vote anyone!
Yes, such a feature is available, but obviously these seemingly notorious leaders have never disclosed it. This is called '49-O'.
Why should you go and say 'I VOTE NOBODY'? ... Because, in a ward, if a candidate wins, say by 123 votes, and that particular ward has received '49-O' votes more than 123, then that polling will be cancelled and will have to be re-polled. Not only that, but the candidate of the contestants will be removed and they cannot contest the re-polling, since people had already expressed their decision on them.
This would bring fear into parties and hence look for genuine candidates for their parties for election. This would change the way, of our whole political system... it is seemingly surprising why the election commission has not revealed such a feature to the public.... Please spread this news to as many as you know... Seems to be a wonderful weapon against corrupt parties in India... show your power, expressing your desire not to vote for anybody, is even more powerful than voting... so don't miss your chance.
So either vote, or vote not to vote (vote '49-O') and pass on this info...
Please forward this mail to as many as possible, so that we, the People of India, can really use this power to save our nation.
Use your voting right for a better INDIA.
Jago India Jago !!!!
Unquote
Can someone amongst us who might be familiar with RTI or Constitutional Provisions opine on whether a Habeas Corpus Petition would be tenable on this?
Can we make sure that we are not denied this fundamental right and vote with our left feet if we have poor choices?
This is promising.

Yes,we can

We now know from the Deshmukhs'
what it means when an Indian Politician says those three magic words

"Yes,we can"

Obama doesn't blink when he says them, Neither does the Indian Politico.
The Indian politico winks, "yes we can ;-)"

Isn't it time we threw these thugs out!
Pray - why must a minister in India also be an MP?
surely it isn't about caliber!
Redundant, time to change that.
Just like it is time to vote the head of government by direct voting, not by the parliamentarians.
Strip them of their power to swerve and empower them to serve.

The rape of a nation and its will

यह ५४२ ज़मींदार
जनादेश जिनके लिए वैश्या से अधिक कुछ नहीं
और संसद जिनका हरम है
बाहुबली जिनकी महफिल के साजिन्दे और पनवाडी हैं
जहाँ जनमत की अस्मत रोज़ फरोख्त होती है
कभी बाहर से और कभी भीतर के संबल के लिए
जहाँ सत्ता रोज़ अपने आशिक बदलती है
ग्राहक और दलाल रोज भूमिका बदलते हैं
इस अबला की इज्ज़त अगर बचानी है
तो इसका तिरस्कार रोकना होगा
चुनाव के नाम पर यह वेश्यागमन अगर रोकना है
तो सरकार का कर्ता सीधे और दो-टूक चुना जाना होगा
कुर्सी को द्रौपदी बनाने वालों के पाखंड का चीर हरना होगा
उन्नी के पिता ने राह पर कदम भरा है
पगड़ी पत्नी ने करकरे की बचाई है
भारत मां को इन व्याभिचारिओं के शोषण से बचाना है
तो संसद का स्वरुप ही बदलना होगा
दरिद्र को फिर से नारायण बनाना होगा

Wake up and smell the coffee!

A letter outlining a roadmap sent out by a business assciate and a friend and above all a concerned Indian: Manish Dhanuka

Dear All,

If Indian government really cares for the Indians and if it has any pride left, then this is the time to react. If USA can react and bomb Afghanistan and Pak borders in retaliation to the terror strikes in their country, India should immediately send a sortie of 50 Jet fighters and bomb all training camps of LeT and Jaish e Mohd, in PoK. I am confident that International community will understand the situation right now.

This will clearly give a message to the terror organisations also. We are willing to sacrifice more lives and we are willing to take more terror strikes but not without retaliation. This is a war like situation and the government must act. I suggest the following immediate measures to be taken by the government.

1. Air strikes on all the training camps, destroy them completely.

2. Use the technology, keep a close surveillance on the suspect locations in Pakistan through satellite surveillance.

3. Immediately incorporate an (Anti terror Security Organisation controlled by the Central Govt.) to be headed by the chosen officers from the Army, Navy and Air force. This organisation to have few hundred commandos ready at all times in all 25 major cities of India. This group to have power to order any state police officer including the commissioner of police. All CISF personnel guarding the security of Air Ports to be under the control of this organisation. The officers of this organization to be deployed in plain clothes at all key locations in major cities.

4. All Police stations in the country to have computerized central data storage mechanism, just like the ports. All intelligence data on the FIRs and reports to be easily accessible to the security forces.

Regards,

Manish Dhanuka

सौदा

यह कैसी है विडम्बना की युग बदल गए पर भीष्म को आज भी राजा के रूप में ध्रितराष्ट्र ही मिलता है युधिस्ठिर नहीं ?

तू फरजंद था , तू पाबन्द था
कर गया जो लाल करता है
हम तमाशाई हैं रो लिए अपने नसीब को
पढ़ लिए मंत्र भी हमने
फूँक दी चिता तेरी
यह रहनुमा है
देखें तेरी शहादत का ये क्या हाल करता है
फैसलों ने इसके कब्र तक पहुँचा दिया तुझे
उम्र की तेरी देखें यह क्या इस्तेमाल करता है
कटोरे की तरह तक़रीर में
या गुडिया के बाल करता है
देखें तेरी शहादत का ये क्या हाल करता है

गरज गया यहाँ बरसेगा जाने कहाँ
देखें मोहल्ले का क्या हाल करता है
देखें तेरी शहादत का ये क्या हाल करता है
तिजारत है इसकी फितरत में
अपनी नसों के पानी को रंग से लाल करता है
शहीदों और मासूमों के खून के सिक्कों से
सियासत के बाज़ार में सौदे आदतन हर बार करता है
देखें तेरी शाहदत का यह क्या हल करता है
यह रहनुमा है हमारा
अजब है वफायें अजब है प्यार इसका
देखें तेरी शहादत का हाल यह इस बार क्या करता है

Islamic Impasse

Note: Those who have read previous posts may find it a bit reptitive though it was written in a different context and to a different audience.

Let me start out by saying that I am from a minority religion too, an Indian citizen,describe myself as a hindu in my passport, grew up immersed in Hindu mythology and discovered my religion later . enjoy sufi and islamic devotional music and have had friends in all religions and any other denominations that you can think of all my life and see no conflict in any of these identities. In fact these are not conflicts at all since I am an Indian, just as you are at the very core of your being. A proud one at that.
Yet the muslim community in India today finds itself, between a rock and a hard place.
This is because of the rabble and its rousers in each family,society,community or nation.
Mouthing ideological platitudes as we have been, since the hypocrisy of Indian politics institutionalized itself thanks to the congress culture and its lack of inner democracy which pervades the consciousness or the DNA of the politics of our country.
.This is a leadership failure at all levels, the family, society. community and national. And much as i dread to say this - it must be said that the leadership in the Muslim community - social, political,religious have all failed muslims miserably. And I am perhaps preaching to the choir here a bit, as your are obviously progressively minded people who visit or contribute to this site.
I have also no reason to believe that most of the Indian muslim bretheren are any different from me since they grew up where I did and were also part of my cultural consciousness.
The leadership at all fronts has failed. One significant domain of leadership that I have deliberately not discussed so far is the personal leadership domain.
And this is the only domain where each one of us can be the change instead of demanding the change and guaranteeing failure by the nature of the exercise.
The first step to change is recognizing the problem.
The second is accepting it - i.e. getting out of denial mode.
A large majority of us fail at the first step, a larger part of the remainder fail at the second step.
The third step is contemplation - a few of us are able to do this dispassionately rising above our conditioning.
The rest is easy once you have come this far, the popular myth of finding it hard to find the motivation just ceases to hold water when one has come this far.
A wise man perhaps Einstein observed - The significant problems of today cannot be solved using the thinking that created it - i'd go further and say that trying to solve the significant problems of the day by the existing thinking (i say thinking, not wisdom) is the definition of lunacy.
These are universal laws of life and could be defied only at ones own peril - one could be unhappy about gravitation and jump out of the nearest window in defiance - the results need no explanation.
So how is this relevant to the current situation?
Let us walk together and map it onto this current impasse and its deadly results.
I believe that all muslims that are rational in their thinking will agree that the muslim community today finds itself generally stereotyped in the worst possible manner. This stereotyping stymies the progressive forces and the very key to the deadlock. While raving and ranting about it is an option but the fact is that some muslims have made large contributions to the formation of this stereotype globally. This venom within would need to be indentified and antidotes be made a part of personal lives of those of us who care.
Let me also say that every individual,society and community generally craves and strives for what we can loosely call success.
It is a universal desire and so the laws of success are universal.
Again let me risk being a bit preachy - but let the faint of heart and spirit stop at this point, as they may not be able to stomach what follows as it involves personal change, that we never want to bring about unless forced by self interest.
I think we are at such a point in time now.
The origins, goals and motivations of this outrage in Mumbai are quite evident now.
If there is any doubt in any mind on this planet on the fruit of ignorance, hatred and spiritual bankruptcy are, they need their head examined.
That said, the outcome of one's life is clearly a sum total of choices we make at every step in our lives. This however is not so obvious to those who covet visible success or its spoils without having the stomach or susbtance for what that takes.
For every terrorist or wastrel who justifies his acts in pursuit of vengeance is just a weakling who wishes to take the easy way out, trying to bargain a price for what he covets.
That is the essential difference between the Salaskars',Karakres', Kamptes', Gajendra Singhs', Karambir Kangs' and Sandeep Unnikrishans' and the countless others who shall remain nameless and faceless in our consciousness on one hand and the Azam Amir Kasavs' and his ilk of the world.
In our need to look compassionate and socially responsible we seem to try to defy these natural laws of life. In our eagerness to be liked we seem to be over-eager to hand out fishes and loaves to those and create a mentality of covetousness and create a belief that it is indeed righteous to to be so.
What could be further from the truth about the forces of life.
It is a delinquency in our roles as leaders, as we lead our siblings,children, colleagues,societies or indeed nations, if we lead ourselves or others to believe otherwise.
Sympathy is a substance liable to abuse like any other and in fact is the most rampantly absued
of all opiates.
So let us purge ourselves of the guilt that is distributed so liberally by all and sundry who pose as the wronged most often, when all they are doing is venting greed devoid of any intelligence -cognitive, emotional or spiritual- at all.
Compassion, Humility and empathy are great virtues that all of must possess and pusrsue in greater measure, as we pursue greater success and make progress but let no one use this as an arm to twist behind our backs and hold entire nations and world to ransom.
Let us not reward incompetent and stunted leaders with negotiated settlements to buy peace but lead them to paths that teach these essential and if that means not sparing the rod so be it.
Let us not be delinquent in our responsibility towards the ones that we lead and those who choose to be in our care by letting our knees buckle and take easy ways out at any step or take cover under the fuselage of superficial debates that will now erupt and be fuelled by these men-of-words-and-little-else who lead us today in all domains.

It is here the progressive islam proponents can choose to carry the can forward.
The temptation to let the "others" change first is rather inviting and we succumb to it often,
Let me repeat - The significant problems of today cannot be solved using the thinking that created it .

क्या जीतोगे तुम?

क्या जीतोगे तुम हमसे?
कैसे जीतोगे तुम उस राष्ट्र से
जिस मां की बेटियाँ जनती हैं
सलस्कर, कामते, करकरे
गजेन्द्र, संदीप, करमबीर
और वे जो उत्सर्ग करते हैं अनाम ही
और गिने भी नहीं जाते
जो अपने और पराये का भी नहीं करते भेद
तुम क्या उजाडोगे उस मां की कोख
तुम दशानन सही
कैसे लडोगे सत्व को पूजने वाली सभ्यता से
यह नहीं है धर्म की लड़ाई
जिसका तुम ढोल बजाते रहते हो
तुम बस थक गए हो और तुममे नहीं है आग वो
जो भीख से ले जाए तुम्हे श्री की ओर
कटोरों पे बसर करने वाले हो तुम कर्म से अजनबी
वासना और वांछा को पूजने वालों
तुम्हारा कोई राष्ट्र नहीं,कोई समाज नहीं हो सकता
न तुम किसी समाज को कुछ दे सकते हो
कहाँ है शक्ति तुममे कुछ देने या पाने की

Of self and selflesness

The origins, goals and motivations of this outrage in Mumbai are quite evident now.
If there is any doubt in any mind on this planet on the fruit of ignorance, hatred and spiritual bankruptcy are, they need their head examined.
That said, the outcome of one's life is clearly a sum total of choices we make at every step in our lives. This however is not so obvious to those who covet visible success or its spoils without having the stomach or susbtance for what that takes.
For every terrorist or wastrel who justifies his acts in pursuit of vengeance is just a weakling who wishes to take the easy way out, trying to bargain a price for what he covets.
That is the essential difference between the Salaskars',Karakres', Kamptes', Gajendra Singhs', Karambir Kangs' and Sandeep Unnikrishans' and the countless others who shall remain nameless and faceless in our consciousness on one hand and the Azam Amir Kasavs' and his ilk of the world.
In our need to look compassionate and socially responsible we seem to try to defy these natural laws of life. In our eagerness to be liked we seem to be over-eager to hand out fishes and loaves to those and create a mentality of covetousness and create a belief that it is indeed righteous to to be so.
What could be further from the truth about the forces of life.
It is a delinquency in our roles as leaders, as we lead our siblings,children, colleagues,societies or indeed nations, if we lead ourselves or others to believe otherwise.
Sympathy is a substance liable to abuse like any other and in fact is the most rampantly absued
of all opiates.
So let us purge ourselves of the guilt that is distributed so liberally by all and sundry who pose as the wronged most often, when all they are doing is venting greed devoid of any intelligence -cognitive, emotional or spiritual- at all.
Compassion, Humility and empathy are great virtues that all of must possess and pusrsue in greater measure, as we pursue greater success and make progress but let no one use this as an arm to twist behind our backs and hold entire nations and world to ransom.
Let us not reward incompetent and stunted leaders with negotiated settlements to buy peace but lead them to paths that teach these essential and if that means not sparing the rod so be it.
Let us not be delinquent in our responsibility towards the ones that we lead and those who choose to be in our care by letting our knees buckle and take easy ways out at any step or take cover under the fuselage of superficial debates that will now erupt and be fuelled by these men-of-words-and-little-else.

Terror and its tenuous explanations

Terror has an uncanny knack for spouting as many experts as bullets.
Therein perhaps is its success - it brings attention to every individual's thoughts no matter how far fetched or lame.
Take for example this article titled "Indian Muslims in Crisis" (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1862650,00.html) authored by Aryn Baker in Time magazine.
Quote
The disparities between Muslims, which make up 13.4% of the population, and India's Hindu population, which hovers around 80%, are striking. There are exceptions, of course, but generally speaking Muslim Indians have shorter life spans, worse health, lower literacy levels, and lower-paying jobs.
Unquote
The author or the sources that are alluded to, and the muslims that are referred to, have clearly either not visited parts of Bihar, Orissa and several other Indian states or chose to ignore the fact that a larger than 13.4% slice of Indian population of Non Muslims ive in the kind of grinding poverty with all ist corollaries that would make the existence of the muslims referred to, seem like the lap of luxury - yet they havent taken to guns or killed others or resorted to ethnic cleansing. For what is it if not etnic cleansing that is happening in the Jammu Valley of the Indian Kashmir?
Thomas Edison that great American and indeed exemplary human , did not invent any WMD nor did he seem to need to kill people inspite of coming from a relatively under priviledged section of society.
He chose to do other things like inventing the light bulb or electrical energy instead - he shook the earth too, a bit differently though.
Why is it that qualities that we deem desirable in an individual are so diepensable when we talk of societies or communiaties or even mobs? Why are our expectations suddenly so much lower?

Why do we take it upon ourselves to pander to this entitlement mentality?
Why do we analyse these issues on a communal or race based metric instead of the individual and his choices?
Aren't all of the most inspiring success stories based on an individual beating circumstance?
Who said life was fair or had to be fair? The human race would have achieved nought if life were indeed just and fair all the time.
Socialism should have been our ideal instead if this was right and yet capitalism is what we preach ad nauseaum , ad infinitum.
The mental pciture seems to be one of a child with folded arms and "please me" smugness.
The modern day parents seem to suffer from this same syndrome - a result of excessive politically corrrect ideas that we adopt to look more correct than the next guy annd end up pandering our children silly.
Except that it isnt anyone's brief to please anyone else.
Can anyone really help someome who doesn't want to help himself -but just covets and covets more?
Whatever is wrong with old fashioned striving or is that considered dysfunctional now?
and then this priceless gem

which I quote

Retribution was swift, and though Pandey was a Hindu, it was the subcontinent's Muslims, whose Mughal King nominally held power in Delhi, who bore the brunt of British rage. The remnants of the Mughal Empire were dismantled, and five hundred years of Muslim supremacy on the subcontinent was brought to a halt.

Muslim society in India collapsed. The British imposed English as the official language. The impact was cataclysmic. Muslims went from near 100% literacy to 20% within a half-century. The country's educated Muslim élite was effectively blocked from administrative jobs in the government. Between 1858 and 1878, only 57 out of 3,100 graduates of Calcutta University — then the center of South Asian education — were Muslim. While discrimination by both Hindus and the British played a role, it was as if the whole of Muslim society had retreated to lick its collective wounds.

Unquote

So what did the muslim society expect? Should the british have handed over the reigns to them when they left - did the british lease India from the Moghuls or did the moghuls loose it to the British? Petulance!
Could you in today's world keep your job if you refused to learn how to use a PC and the Internet when they made thier debut at work ?
Breathtaking examples of "please me"
Why do we allow people or communities to lay the guilt of their failure and deprivation at our doors when it is borne out of their intransigence that is dragging them down?
Muslims just seems to be topical - but the same realities underly all minority-majority, deprived-priviledged conflicts in families, societies communities and indeed the world.
Let us stop feeling obliged to apologising for other's sins of omission out of political correctness.

That perhaps is the single greatest favor we would be doing such participants of pity-poor-me fraternities.