A Response To Sagarika Ghose’s Riders On The Storm
I seldom write counter posts on someone’s views. In fact no
one can have a counter view even. For all that one can say, yours could be just
another view but counter? Well it is one of those mumbo – jumbos which few
people having full time job of hopping from one news studio to another; mention
as part of their panel discussions to sound intelligent but can one really have
a counter view? Hence my attempt with this post shouldn’t anyway be treated as
a counter view to what Sagarika Ghose posted under the title “Riders On TheStorm”. As I told earlier, it is just another view at ridiculing what she has
to say about Gujarat and the Gujarat Muslims. And yes, about Narendra Modi
also.
First of all, I don’t understand the semantics in coming up
with such a name for the post. Who riding the storm and where and most
important how? Anyway, the introductory line that this lady thought of writing
pretty much settles the nature of the post that one can expect to follow. Yes, completely
biased with no clue on what she wanted to convey other than showcasing some
nasty agenda which best suits the psyche of people like her and in a way corroborates
the new found phenomena that the nation is witnessing of late, by the name
pseudo secularism.
Muslims are seeking a new narrative in Gujarat beyond victimhood
Victimhood? How? Kind of lines which looks like been brought
into the context from nowhere and for no reason. The lady feels, it is the
Muslims who are, were and will always remain victims in Gujarat for reasons
even she can’t point one. It seems she feels the Muslims have the right by
default to play the victim card perpetually; even for their own crimes. Though
I was expecting at least at one point throughout the post she would elaborate
on why exactly she feels the Muslims of Gujarat are victims, she never did that
for obvious reasons. Because she doesn’t have a reason to begin with. How
moronic it could be when without reasons one goes ahead and pronounce a section
as victims that in a way suggest the other side is the oppressor. I object to
this pontification of facts since I first saw innocent blood been spilled
nonchalantly on the platform of Godhra. And the perpetrators are still called
victims? Then who is the culprit? Innocents including small kids those were
charred alive? If unpretentious logic of the lady has gone haywire, then she
might very well find Osama Bin Laden a victim as well. How hopeless this line
could be but I still hope she finds Sikhs are also victims when it comes to the
state of Delhi.
The gaffe just doesn’t stops at the first line itself. She
goes on in producing marvels after marvels which are nothing but lies and deception
of facts at best. Remember my last post – If you are an idiot, you shouldn’t
open your mind and let the world know about it. So read on –
Mercantile, entrepreneurial and aspirational Gujarati have created India's first perpetually red republican state where the majority sentiment is culturally conservative and economically right wing, no matter what the exact party complexion of the ruling regime.
Red republican state? Not sure if the lady got highly
impressed with Tim Russert but equating even by literary point of view; Gujarat
with say Milwaukie is kind of bizarre. Anyway, this is not the concern. The
line might very well look harmless at the first glance but does it that
required to pop up the right wing nonsense here as well? Though I am not sure
who decides which one is the left wing and which one is the right; but media
morons went ahead branding the Hindu centric organizations as the so called
right wing fanatics. So when she says Gujarati are economically right wing, I
could really see the intent in branding the entire Gujarati business community
as fanatics by her own yardstick. And which religion constitutes the majority of
the Gujarati business community? Yes, Hindus who could easily be trademarked as
fanatics for just being from that religion but people who routinely blow their
ass in public places to kill innocents are victims.
Quantification at the time of need is justified but
quantifying always as if the sheer lesser number is an automatic symbol of suppression
is little too much. By that logic even the handful of IIT grads should be
considered a suppressed lot amongst the rest 25 lakh engineers that we produce
every year?
But within this largely Hindu state with a Hindu consensus, there is a silent invisible transformation. At 9 per cent of the population, Muslims remain politically irrelevant. The BJP hasn't given a single ticket to Muslims in this election yet again.
Do you see logic in this line? Well I don’t but I see a lot
of agenda though. “Largely Hindu state with Hindu consensus” – want to ask if
the lady finds any state, barring few northeast ones, in India which are not
largely Hindu states. So what are the specifics that are so unique to the percentage
of Hindus or Muslims in Gujarat that bothers her so much? And Hindu consensus?
What is a Hindu consensus by the way? When she says there is a slight change of
transformation in this Hindu consensus state, I wonder what kind of transformation
she is talking about. Is it for good or bad? Any whichever way it may be, but her
intent in maligning Hindus for the sake of it is well understood. If the
transformation is good, then it means the so called Hindu consensus was bad
initially, which predominantly was anti-Muslim. If the transformation is
getting bad, it suggests the Hindus were never good towards the so called Victim
Muslims at the first place; rather it has gone worse now since Narendra Modi is
in power.
Any religion attaining political irrelevance is a dangerous precedence
for our democracy, not just Muslims. When she says 9 percent of population, I
fail to understand what she wants us to infer. Is it that Muslims are
irrelevant in Gujarat after being good 9% of the population or Muslims are irrelevant
because they are just 9%? Again in either way, this is a bloody number game she
should have stayed away from. In both the scenarios it suggests, the Modi
government is intentionally keeping the Muslim community irrelevant with
respect to state politics. And I believe she wanted to sell that exact nefarious
conclusion once I read through the line that follows. The reason she arrived at
such a conclusion is, because BJP has not offered any tickets to Muslims for
this edition of Gujarat election. Someone badly needs to educate her that more
than the contestants it is the voters who play a bigger role in democracy. Has
that been snatched away from the Muslims of Gujarat? So where the question of political
irrelevance arises here? If we take her line, only if Modi has given tickets to
the Muslims then it would have made some sense and since that didn’t happened,
Modi has automatically driven a community to oblivion politically. If one gets
serious with this line, Modi might very well have to rethink about his
political policies. That said, a quick question – why only Muslims? Modi should
have distributed few tickets to Jains, Christians and Sikhs as well. Those
communities also deserve to remain politically relevant as per Sagarika’s
logic. Don’t they?
Even if we take her absurdity for a second, still the logic
looks bizarre and divisive. Does she mean Muslims shouldn’t be represented by non-Muslims?
Or even vice-a-versa? By suggesting (Ok, indirectly) only Muslims to represent
Muslims; she only is widening the vacuum between the communities of the state.
Aren’t we in India represented by a prime-minister from a community which might
not be even 9% of our nation’s population? How thoughtless one could be to even
think of blasting Modi for such a laughable reason. This is nothing but plain
gimmickry from someone, who now I believe is quite undeservingly grabbing the post of assistant
editor of a premiere news channel of India.
This civic and judicial activism has not only prevented any large scale Muslim alienation from the system after the riots but also created a renewed sense of engagement. There are many young Muslim lawyers fighting riot cases, confident that the courts will be fair. The Modi government loves to pour scorn on "biased" NGOs and media for continually harping on riots, but the fact is, it is precisely because of the outreach by civil society, that to a large extent, communal tensions have been lowered.
So Modi has done nothing to ensure the non-occurrence of any
riots for last decade? It is only the civic and judiciary that has done the
magic. So why the same civic and judiciary doesn’t repeat the miracle in other
states of India? Say for UP, where there are at least half a dozen religious
violence in as many months. Or the Congress ruled Assam where migrants ended up
killing our own people. Are these states out of bounds for our judiciary and
social genius like Teesta Shetelvad? This is nothing but yet again one of those
attempts at undermining Modi’s efforts in bringing harmony among the sections
of the society by diverting them towards profitable engagements in the form of jobs,
business and opportunities. For her, the upsurge in employment opportunities
hasn’t helped the youth of the state to look beyond religious hatred but the
SIT and continuous howling of madam Teesta has. Well she hasn’t forgotten to
pat her own and many paid entities like her for this sojourn of hate since they
fought tirelessly for harmony, even after been scorned as biased. Uffs, great nationalism
I must say.
In 2002, the riots brought a majority of 127 seats; in 2007 Modi invoked the Sohrabuddin case to consolidate his image as protector of Hindus and won 117 seats. Today he may have made references to "Miyan" Ahmed Patel to try and neutralize hard line Hindu outrage at his Sadbhavna mission or outreach to minorities and reassure his core Hindu voters.
What would you say about this line? Could there be a bigger
party than Congress who invariably always fight elections on religious and
caste lines? But hell, we are been paid hefty by them to cover their sins, not to
unearth them. So let’s ridicule Modi, even for his nonexistent religious
ideologies. According to the genius it is the 2002 riots that swung the mandate
in favor of Modi; not his governance and accountability post the riots? Could
we also imply the same logic to Rajiv’s empathetic win post Sikh massacre of
1984? How gullible this is for the lady to name Sohrabuddin as something which
won Modi the 2007 election is clear from the fact that, it is the media which
blown the issue out of proportion and projected a criminal as a hero in a view
that it might just eat into Modi’s votes. If she is so sad because Modi won
2007 she should first blame herself and many others in the fourth estate for
making a useless instance like Shorabuddin as a talking point. Hindu poster
boy? For records, Modi never called himself as one. Nor even BJP or RSS. It is
the media which has made him that and now repenting since it has boomeranged,
rather hampering him. So get the logic right lady. If one person like
Shorabuddin could make you win state elections then Rahul Gandhi would have
concurred UP earlier this year. And by the way, aren’t such blatant claims making
the Gujarati voters look utterly fool? As if they don’t have their own wisdom
and depend heavily upon entities like Shorabuddin to take their decisions?
However Juhapura also resembles a Gujarati Gaza Strip, a designated area for Muslims, a place where they can build and flourish, but not venture beyond. Modi has not visited Juhapura even once as chief minister.
Again an absurd comparison. Gaza Strip? Seriously? We don’t
have state sponsored battle tanks roaming on the streets there. She knows it
but the comparison is somewhat habitual as otherwise it is nearly difficult to
project Narendra Modi as a demon. I am not sure of her claims but does it sound
believable that Muslims can’t just venture out of Juhapura? Even if they can’t
or they don’t want to; what the chief minister is supposed to do? The self-alienation
could be because of many factors, not just fear. Does she expect Modi to drive
in with a Bus and drive them back to other parts of the city personally? So why
not Rahul Gandhi doing the same and pack all those exiled Kashmiri Pundits back
to Srinagar? And please someone enlighten me, how the CM not visiting a place amounts
to neglect? And that too an intentional one at that. Dr. Manmohan Singh hasn’t
visited, even once to the locality that I stay either. Should I accuse Congress
and Dr. Singh of discrimination?
All
in all I wonder who in earth possibly entertains such incompetent individuals
on important posts. How come someone who can barely name all the states in one
attempt happens to be the assistant editor? Aren’t their better chaps in
CNN-IBN to take her place? For good? If that is not good enough, people with her
level of IQ, not only are venturing into the wild of politics but start
questioning seasoned politicians like Narendra Modi. Guess the definition of
competency has changed for CNN-IBN and many alike. Now it is not what your
caliber is but how big a Rudali you are for the Muslims and how ferocious you
are in bashing Modi with all the absurd logics. In both these parameters Sagarika
Ghose emerges as the winner though Barkha Dutt is giving a real run for her
money.
being cynical.... it is not wroth making comments on the paid media jokers (which includes Rajdeep , Burkha Dutta and the sagarika) Most of these case they are ready to sell their mothers for money and fame (they even feel ashamed to say they are Hindu)
ReplyDeleteThey even fail to understand democracy means it is majority who should rule the country (majority may be in religion, or their opinion, may be any thing)..
Can any these
Agree with swaroop. Not only that either they cowards masquerading as journalists slaves posing as liberals carrying chips on shoulders of freedom, secularism. It reminds me of dog carrying a cart. These idiots are turncoats and have no guts to sermonize or criticize that RoP and its followers even if they have committed the most heinous crimes. Ask them about who burnt the coach s-6 of Sabarmati Express in 2002...and their chatter will stop immediately. It is too much tolerance of Hindus is responsible for these slaves, cowards, turncoats and paid agents of congress to florish.
ReplyDeletegree with swaroop. Not only these jokers either they are cowards masquerading as
ReplyDeletejournalists or are slaves posing as liberals carrying chips on their shoulders of
freedom, secularism. It reminds me of story dog walking beneath a bullock cart and thinking that he is carrying a cart. These idiots
are turncoats and have no guts to sermonize or criticize that RoP and
its followers even if they have committed the most heinous crimes. Ask
them about who burnt the coach s-6 of Sabarmati Express in 2002...and
their chatter will stop immediately. It is too much tolerance of Hindus
is responsible for these slaves, cowards, turncoats and paid agents of
congress to flourish.
Hindus are right (usually), hence right wing, losers are left behind (as they will not integrate with the society), hence left wing. Unfortunately, Muslims usually get left behind since they put too much importance on approvals from their religious leaders for everyday acts. Even among Christians, there are fathers who preach in churches as to whom the 'community' should vote. Fortunately, Hindus are relatively free of such group-ism. But lack of such group-ism leads to lack of concerted action. The 'victims' of Hinduism fail to understand that they have fallen into a dependency trap which favours the crooked parties
ReplyDeleteOh.. brilliant piece… the idiot box has no way but to remain
ReplyDeleteidiotbox with all these useless chaps… these people are a challenge to the
world’s civilization and humanity and human intellect.. …
These idiots know how to use words and get paid for that !! These are useless people wasting electronic medi's bandwidth that could be better utilised in broadcasting big boss - good thing is people understand the gimmic .
ReplyDeleteGood one, again!! Well if I am not mistaken, Sagarika is wife of one Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai, who happens to be the one calling shots at CNN-IBN. So they seem to be following their pay masters by running channels as family businesses, just like political parties are.
ReplyDeletePlus these are well aware of the fact that there are no real Hindu terror organizations. They wont dare side by Kashmiri Pundits and rally against the Valley Muslims. Because they know sooner or later an ass would bust outside their office or car, and the story ends. So safer bet is to run a shop against the Hindus, and once you are paid in dollars in some islands far of mainland India, who cares for the right and wrong.
Again a paid media, where T.V. anchors and journalists make their careers by bashing Modi. Please read this article “The Kettle Hits Back” by Madhu Kishwar on Outlook
ReplyDeletemagazine (link http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?283393)
– some of the excerpts –
“As far as riots, communal massacres and divisive politics is concerned, no party in India dares match the track record of Congress party in post independence years. It starts with gross mishandling of Kashmir through rigged elections, installing
puppet regimes and then misusing the army to deal with the resulting popular discontent and disaffection. The result is for all to see—tens of thousands of killings and 'disappearance' of Kashmiri Muslims, near total cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley, and permanent regional and communal polarisation in the state.
The Khalistan wave in Punjab was also a creation of the Congress party through propping up Bhindranwale with a view to
wresting control of resource rich gurudwaras and Punjab Assembly from the Akali Dal. The same foolish formula was applied in Sri Lanka by propping up the murderous LTTE which exacerbated ethnic strife leading to endless massacres total brutalisation and marginalisation of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Even with regard to Muslims, the riots politically orchestrated by the Congress in Jamshedpur, Bhiwandi, Bhagalpur
Hyderabad, Bokaro, Meerut, Malliana, Mumbai, Nellie and a host of other towns and cities as well as the most recent riots in Assam—all under Congress rule are not forgotten by the Muslim community which has stopped being a captive vote bank of the Congress.”
“I did not see one newspaper or TV channel give the slightest bit of importance to 120 Muslims winning zilla parishad elections as BJP candidates in the recent most elections to local bodies. But if Modi does not field any Muslim candidates for Assembly elections he is castigated, ridiculed for days on end by secular
intellectuals and TV anchors“
Superb article !!! People like Sagarika and Rajdeep are responsible for the utter commercialisation and cheapening of the 4th pillar of Indian democracy. Mindless and sponsored criticism has been unabated and the article very well pierces through the incessant noise they are trying to project over Modi and BJP.
ReplyDelete2003-12 has been the first ever Riot free decade in India. The only reason behind this miracle is not Modi, but the fear of law in the people and its unbiased approach to all colours whether Green or Kesari. Its hard to neglect how Muslims generally take law in their hands on the flimsiest of ground in most of the Indian states which are unfailingly non BJP ruled. What happened in Chennai, Mumbai, Lucknow in the aftermath of Bodo-Bangladeshi riots and the video on Prophet made by some guy in US only shows how easily state give its tacit approval to these unlawful activities by the Sagarika's victims. Demonising Modi for installing fear of law in the minority (which is often the most notorious group) is the height of all sycophancy.
I have to pick only one line and that is , if we talk of muslims (naturally everything that favors this community) we are secular and we we talf about the well being of a nation we are communal.
ReplyDeleteModi loses , no Indian wants, he can't be denied a seat top-most in Delhi. He has to be there . We require a savior of India not a man with a broom in hands for one community for paving their way to attain total unrest like that which exists in Pakistan. Fanaticism is an accepted formula and is state protected there and it has no place in India , however, Bihar may be its asylum in the days to come under our charismatic development man Sri Nitish Kumar . The way he has found a meaning of secularism is after all not acceptable to us , we The Indians.
Talking of Gaza strip and all these rubbish things may be a tool of some journalists , they may use it to describe any muslim dominated area in India , it does not make much difference, these so named Gaza Strips will have to have only one flag in their hands and that is our national TRICOLOR. This will definitely be ensured when Modi is there at the helm . So do not fear My sister , you have shown by above that your are a real Indian and not a follower of only Narendra Ji .Kudos to have expressed such a view. Definitely not a counter view but an elucidation of the feelings of every Indian .
now the time is over for the miscreants to remain in the power corridors. They are those who had themselves sown the seeds of disharmony in between the communities. Maoism and naxalism are their two sons .They have poured water for their birth and after health . The policies of this anti national government has bred these two communities apart from the two major communities of India.
ReplyDeleteMao and naxal are those people who have been forced to lift arms in their hands by this non performing government which has under the facade of pro poor policies deprived the poor people from being called poor even, but they have tatoo-ed them as un-human beings. The money which this shameless government is showing to have been spent on these poor masses are taken away by the various ministers in power at Delhi. Look at Kalmadi, A.Raja, and others. How shamelessly they have been granted bail to justify their innocence at the cost of plight of the whole of the nation.
Sometimes Mayawati, Mulayam, Mamta other times Karunadidhi and now Nitish Kumar , this shameless government is talking to all these secular forces to keep Mr. Modi out of the ring , sometimes SIT and sometimes CBI, what is this , even if they walk the entire earth on their bare feet they will not be able to keep Sri Modi at bay . See 2014 , see Modiji there as PM . And he is the joint target for them because they fear once he comes there in their position of power which is imminent , they will have to leave India and be special guest of honor in Middle East or Pakistan to preach their doctrine of secularism .