A List of Hurt Sentiments of Muslim Groups

Some people should know what will offend and what will not but they never seem to learn. If you’re writing an article, a book or making a movie you should first make a list of all those who will be offended by it and then sanitise your work. This piece of sound advice is not from me but the Honourable Minister Shashi Tharoor. You see, Tharoor believes anything offending Hindus is a work of art and should be appreciated and applauded as such. But if you’re about to write anything or make any movie that has the remote chance of offending Muslims you should think twice. He established this doctrine of free speech in a debate with the late Christopher Hitchens. I quote Tharoor because his logic symbolises the entire left-liberal crap in the Indian socio-political system.

Poor Ashis Nandy! He made some comment about OBCs and Dalits being corrupt and he’s about to pay a price for it. This was during a discussion at the latest edition of the Jaipur Litterfest. Yes I call them Litterfests since they seem to have nothing to do with literature but more of a platform for political discussions. Last year the same Litterfest had to contend with protests against Salman Rushdie’s participation. Hmm! That guy had offended Muslims with ‘Satanic Verses’. This year the Muslims have taken preventive measures to ensure he doesn’t turn up. Then there are those ThinkFests by the Tehelka group of Tarun Tejpal which is tainted by accusations of extortion for ads from the Goa govt. Then again there was another Litterfest where Girish Karnad ranted against VS Naipaul at a function to honour the latter. While the Rajasthan govt was quick to file FIRs against Nandy they haven’t filed any FIR against Union Minister Sushil Shinde who spewed hatred with his “Hindu terror” speech. It took the AP govt months to act against the Owaisis who frequently indulge in filthy speeches.

Imagine, if Shinde had made the same statement about “Muslim Terror” his house probably would have been burned to the ground on the same day. He would have been lucky if there was no physical attack on him if he were to make such a statement. And for all this, super moron Shahrukh Khan believes he’s a “victim” in India. Both Shinde and SRK have now found a natural friend an admirer in ‘Shri’ Hafeez Saeed. I have written many times over that our media is simply scared of Islamic terror and that prevents them from honestly reporting the loutish and thuggish behaviour of certain Muslim groups. Every Muslim public figure has enhanced the “victimhood” feeling for Muslims despite some having achieved fame and fortune in India like SRK. NDTV even specialises on topics that claim Muslims are being “stereotyped”. Let’s see, if some Muslims are going to be angered and protest (often violently) so frequently over every silly thing who exactly is stereotyping them?

Then Muslims claim they don’t get enough job opportunities and aren’t accepted as part of the mainstream. Victimhood again! Hypothetically, supposing a Muslim was employed as a senior manager and one of his peers were to be promoted there is nothing to suggest he won’t claim being discriminated against because he’s a Muslim and won’t go to court. The behaviour and conduct of public figures from the Muslim community holds them to a prison where it seems they can’t lighten up. Jokes offend them, articles offend them, books offend them, music offends them, movies offend them; there isn’t much that doesn’t offend them. India makes them feel like victims! Is there anything that doesn’t offend them? Amitabh Bachchan had to live the taint of Bofors scam for 25 years but he didn’t claim he felt like a victim in India. SRK has faced nothing like that and yet claims he’s victimised because he’s a Muslim in India. The nonsense of SRK has been wonderfully exposed by Venky Vembu in Firstpost who appropriately calls it “King of Victimhood: Shah Rukh Khan bites the hand that fed him”.

Trust me, it doesn’t stop there. Three years ago when US president Barack Obama visited India some Muslims were up in arms. In that case the reason being a security dog from the Obama team was named “Khan”. Makes me wonder how many movies should have been banned, theatres burnt and actors attacked because domestic helps in Bollywood movies are often named “Ramu Kaka”. One of the greatest legal battles in the US over free speech was between Larry Flynt (Founder of porn magazine Hustler) and religious leader Jerry Falwell. Read about in Die Freedom. I quote from that post:

In the landmark case the US SC observed: "The fact that society may find speech offensive is not a sufficient reason for suppressing it. Indeed, if it is the speaker's opinion that gives offense, that consequence is a reason for according it constitutional protection. For it is a central tenet of the First Amendment that the government must remain neutral in the marketplace of ideas”.

Flynt and the late Falwell later became friends and often had friendly debates. In one of those debates Flynt mentioned that in the monthly agenda meetings of Hustler the discussion was “Who haven’t we offended this month?” Haha! That requires constitutional protection. And he added “Time and Newsweek don’t need constitutional protection, it is people like us who offend who need the protection”.

So when Kamal Haasan’s latest movie “Vishwaroopam” was banned in Tamil Nadu it’s again because Muslims protested. I haven’t seen the movie but I hear it’s about a dance teacher who is also a Tamil-speaking Jihadi in Afghanistan. That in itself is laughable but more laughable is that some Muslims find it offensive, many may not even have seen the movie. Against a petition by KH to Madras HC to revoke the ban, the court actually told him to “discuss with the opposing members” to find a solution. This is what appeasement has brought India to. We may now have to negotiate solutions with those who break the law, the offenders. Who knows, in future a molestation victim may be asked to negotiate with the molester too.

I believe the Film Certification Board in India should be the last word on whether a film complies with the laws in India and if they have certified it then the movie shouldn’t be banned. If the FBC has overlooked any provisions of law, that should be contested only in a court and not on the streets. There was this joke floating on Twitter last evening about a devout Arab Muslim hiring a London Taxi.

It seems there is precious little that doesn’t offend certain groups of Muslims. I believe before Lokpal or any other law, our parliament should now make a comprehensive list of things that offends and hurts the sentiments of some Muslims. The rest of us can abide by such a list so that these frequent intolerant protests can stop. Alternatively, they should make a list of things that doesn’t offend such groups of Muslims. I believe that list would be much shorter and easier to understand and follow. If this offends you, I am willing to negotiate.

India Rendered Incapable of Fighting Terror

The sentencing of David Headley in the 26/11 case by a Chicago court had Arnab Goswami up in verbal arms on January 25. He and his news channel went into a fit of hysteria screaming “America let us down” by not extraditing Headley to India for a trial. Arnab and TimesNow showered a hail of criticism on the US just stopping short of calling that country an enemy. Elsewhere, Salman Khurshid, the EAM, stated that if Headley were extradited to India he would have received a more stringent punishment. I had to laugh at this moronic statement coming from a man who once said: "When Sonia Gandhi saw pictures of the Batla House encounter, she had tears in her eyes”. He made this statement during an election campaign at Azamgarh, home to the terrorists killed at Batla House, before the UP elections of 2012. In another place where a ‘Littering’ festival is being held, bimbo panellist Suhel Seth condemned the move to deny some Pakistanis visas to attend this year’s Jaipur Litterfest as “reprehensible”. Mind you, the organiser of the festival, Sanjoy Roy, denies the Pakistanis were invited to speak and suggests they may be attending as visitors and not as invitees. A day after this month’s beheading incident at the LOC, Minister Shashi Tharoor was moderating an “Aman ki asha” debate with film actors and journalists from India and Pakistan. Do you think the US should have really extradited Headley to be handled by a bunch of jokers in this country?

A few days earlier Home Minister Sushil Shinde made the most atrocious statement at the Congress party’s Chintan Shivir at Jaipur: "Reports have come during investigation that BJP and RSS conduct terror training camps to spread terrorism..” adding that they stoked “Hindu terror”. This is not some off the cuff remark or a blooper. This was a carefully crafted speech. If indeed BJP is conducting terror training camps why is the party not banned? Why is such a party allowed to contest elections and have representatives in various Assemblies and also the Parliament? While our media morons debated Shinde’s Hindu terror comment they conveniently buried his comment about BJP and RSS promoting terrorism through their camps. In other words, the HM of this country called some of his colleagues in parliament “terror sponsors”. This is the grave danger of his moronery. It shouldn’t bother us much that “Shri” Hafeez Saeed picked up Shinde’s statement to demand declaring India a “terrorist state”. “Shri” Hafeez naturally finds a friend in Shinde and the Congress party.

It is not that all this load of rubbish that needs to be debated. But typically, our media folks even debate such nonsensical statements which deserve nothing but outright condemnation. And then jokers like Arnab Goswami and Rajdeep Sardesai, who truly belong in a circus, debate the sentencing of David Headley. The US is not foolish to hand over terror suspects to a country like India where the killers of Rajiv Gandhi or the late CM Beant Singh are being protected by politicians. The US is not going to hand over Headley to a country where the Congress is protecting the terrorist who plotted the attack on our own parliament. The US is not going to hand over a terrorist to a country which has shown remarkable unwillingness to combat terrorism and prosecute terrorists.

The Congress govt at the centre has been in permanent denial over the true nature of terrorism. Wilfully so! This denial comes from the fountain of Indian history that denies that religious terrorism was brought to this country from Islamic invasions. Some of the brutal invaders are glorified by the communist historians who are natural allies of the Congress. Islamic terrorism had conquered much of Europe as well. Hinduism has such no such history of religious terrorism. The cases that Shinde cited; Samjhauta Express, Malegaon and Mecca Masjid are all spurious at best. S. Gurumurthy cites the record and background of these cases and how they are being muddied for political reasons in his article in the NIE. If at all some Hindus were involved in these attacks it still doesn’t make out a case for “Hindu terror” just as the Godhra train burning is not classified as an act of terror. And there is nothing that stops the govt from prosecuting and punishing those behind the cases Shinde refers to. Fact is, a few Hindus were arrested and no cases are being prosecuted. I am not sure there is even a valid charge sheet filed against those arrested in these cases.

I wonder how many people recall that after the July 2011 attacks in Mumbai PM Manmohan Singh had grandly stated that the terrorists “had the advantage of surprise”. Then Home Minister P. Chidambaram had stated that absence of intelligence is “not intelligence failure”. Do you seriously expect these people to be able to combat terrorism? Unfortunate truth is that India simply doesn’t have a policy on terrorism or how to combat it. Currently, SoniaG’s tears can decide what or who constitutes terrorism or does not. That’s our policy.

The American politicians, men and uniform are sworn in under an oath to serve and protect their nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic. The 9/11 attacks weren’t the first on the World Trade Center. Eight years prior in 1993 the WTC was bombed and the attackers were arrested, prosecuted and sentenced. The US since then has been regularly notifying terrorist organisations. Of the current list of 51 terrorist organisations named by the US State Department around 14 have some connection with attacks on India as the image below shows:

The media screams about Headley. The Indian govt begs and relies on the US to notify groups as terror organisations. Well, I don’t find the BJP and RSS in this list. Does Shinde, Digvijay or Congress find them? Not surprisingly, the only group with the name “Indian” tagged to it is Indian Mujahideen. Now, we can choose to believe this has nothing to do with religion and nothing to do with Islam. We can also choose to live in denial that members of IM don’t swear on the Quran to carry out their terrorists acts. Shinde’s admirers from LeT, JeM are also in the list. An MP who threatens “Muslim radicalisation” from the floor of the parliament also has friends like Hamas or Hizballah in the list.

The practice of minority appeasement has gone so far that they now even dictate who will be invited to our Litterfests. They will decide what movies can be screened or banned. In Bangalore the Kamal Hassan movie “Vishwaroopam” was interrupted midway as the police didn’t want to offend Muslims because of Eid-e-Milad. Nobody even knows or asks what exactly will not offend them anymore. They will decide what articles can be printed and what books can be published. And our govt watches all of this. In the documentary titled Fitna, Dutch MP Geert Wilders shows girls as young as 3 or 4 being taught to hate non-Muslims by their family, especially to hate Jews. This image currently circulating on the internet shows kids carrying posters seeking slaughter of those insulting Islam. What community asks kids to march with such posters? And these people in the rally certainly don’t look like Hondurans or citizens of Greenland.

If terrorism is a universal phenomenon and if at all there is universal agreement that there is religious terrorism then it doesn’t take an Einstein to find out what the colour of that terrorism is or members of which religion indulge in it. It’s only the Indian govt, particularly the Congress party that is still sleeping. Along with the Congress party we have deceptive liars and idiots in the MSM who neither possess any intelligence nor the willingness to speak the truth about terrorism. Well, I’m not so surprised about our media folks because many of them are funded directly or indirectly by ISI money and many others sleep with our enemies. Many of our media folks qualify to be “domestic enemies” who enjoy luxuries with funds provided by known enemies.

So when an idiot like Arnab Goswami and other media celebs go into a spin demanding Headley be extradited, patriotic Indians should say “No, Thank you”! Whatever Headley’s sentence maybe he will serve it for most of the rest of his life unless an appeal overturns or reduces it. The Americans take the killing of even one of their citizens anywhere very seriously. As for Indians they can die in any Bazar, at the LOC, at the high seas or any corner of the world. Nobody gives a shit! Certainly not a bunch of morons who are still debating the colour of terror. Most certainly not if the ruling party’s Boss is shedding tears over dead terrorists and Union Ministers believe that will get them votes.  

MoronGiri From Jaipur Litfest

Here’s the latest and most courageous piece of journalism in the new century from the most courageous journalist – Barkha Dutt. This is a tweet from the champion of free speech on January 25: “The Buck stops with the government says @SalmanRushdie to me. Hid in a room & interviewed him via video link ironically”. Hid in a room? From what? Ghosts in the video link? From spies disguised as room-boys? This is after her interview with Rushdie once the video conference with him was finally cancelled on January 24 by the hosts at the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF). Nobody knows whether the interview was before or after the cancellation and it is unlikely you’ll ever find out.

The police and hosts of JLF perceived a threat over the video participation of Rushdie in the event on the last day of the public event. But such is the Morongiri of some journos that they think merely interviewing someone from a hotel room through a videolink is an act of courage. There was no law against it, no ban, no threat to privacy in the hotel room. Nothing! So what was this JLF all about? On cancellation of the Rushdie show the organisers quickly put together another show: “Freedom of speech” at 3.45 pm on January 24. This was to fill in the time slot for the Rushdie session.

I am not a literary type but I thought some literary geniuses would be on that show. And indeed they were! You had Shoma Chaudhury and Tarun Tejpal of Tehelka, the Indian version of NOTW tabloid. You had Javed Akhtar a film screen writer and lyricist. There was some Salim Engineer of a muslim group and, of course, there was Rahul Bose, he can be anything and anyone from anywhere you like and for spice they added Barkha Dutt to the group. Literary geniuses! All of them discussing freedom of speech! Nothing wrong with that but what were a bunch of people who wouldn’t be classified under ‘literary’ geniuses under any circumstance doing there? And all of them were dissing one group or the other for the fiasco that was the JLF. Fact of the matter is some muslim groups protested and these courageous folk discussed all groups of Hindus and muslims to explain what freedom of speech is and the audience finally got educated. 

Oh Wait! That’s not all. To add meaning to the stupid exercise Rahul Bose even read from the literary classic ‘Constitution of India’ thus: "Reasonable restrictions can be imposed in the interest of public order, security of state, decency, or morality." I come from a city where time and time again this rule of law is not upheld. It's a grey area and who decides what is moral and what is not”? No matter which city one comes from a moron remains a moron. The only other person who can match such morongiri is Suhel Seth. He suddenly discovered the glorious muslim culture that has contributed so much to this nation (elsewhere on TV). I probably don’t understand his context.

Farcical threats by groups and the state are not countered by protected speeches from a stage by a bunch of pretenders who have the ‘sponsored’ benefit and luxury of airing silly views. Such threats to freedom require countering by action. With his decision to abstain from the JLF Rushdie merely exposed himself and the others as stupid word-mongers at the event. Frankly, a 74-year old Anna Hazare showed greater courage against threats from the state than these verbal lint. And who are Shoma, Barkha, Javed, Tejpal and Rahul? All of them are state-sponsored and honoured propagandists of the govt. It is not freedom of speech that bothers them it is just that their party was being pooped by some idiots. I am no literature expert to comment on Rushdie’s writings but to his credit he did face and survive international death threats for a long time now. His freedom of movement has also been under constant threat. None of his protectors on the stage have ever faced such threats and usually these are the ones who pompously sermonise on freedoms.

There’s another small matter of importance. Rushdie wrote about Islam and Mohammad as he thought fit when many others wouldn’t have dared. His account is obviously fictional and he has the literary license of imagination as well. But what about reporting real events concerning muslims by the very journalists who talk about freedom? A few months back the entire Indian TV media blacked out a violent protest by muslims at Jangpura, a locality in Delhi, over an illegal mosque that was razed under a HC order. The logic was that the NBA (National Broadcasters Association) had advised a blackout. And who exactly is the poster boy for the media where all such muslim issues are concerned? A. Owaisi, the MP from Hyderabad. Now, this man wants a ban on Hindu processions on Ram Navami and has earlier suggested that all Indians must convert to Islam. The more the media suppresses the wrong doings of the muslim extremists the more they will be gobbled by this very evil. Every instance of wrong demands, not condemning terrorist acts and even falling prey to mischief mongers like Digvijay Singh are treated as small incidents by the media. These incidents keep churning the very threat of violence that confronted the JLF. And the media helps to promote the very threat that society faces frequently by either not reporting or condoning it through silence. It is only when their party at Jaipur was spoiled that they found a deep desire for freedom of speech. 

Javed Akhtar is already a Rajya Sabha member from the Congress. So is his wife Shabana Azmi. Before long, the very journalists named in this post will be queuing up for a RS seat. Can they afford to condemn the very party at whose doorstep their future careers lie? That's the problem with these political aspirants, they cannot afford to confront their paymasters and the masters of their own future. So freedom of speech in general is a very convenient topic to discuss without holding responsible anyone who does suppress it.

Barkha’s mistaken sense of having triumphed over imaginary threats by interviewing Rushdie by “hiding” in some room is the typical nonsense that idiots and her fans will be impressed with. Sure, try telling Barkha that her self-aggrandizement was nothing more than ‘morongiri’ you are likely to be held out another threat of legal action. Unfortunately for India, she isn’t just one bad apple, there are many such in the Indian media. They are mere frogs waiting to be boiled.

Loonies In The Box

I haven’t read any book by Chetan Bhagat for the simple reason that no one has gifted me any of his books. I have no intention of buying one either. Well, I’ve made my “position” on the issue clear and I doubt I would bother reading highly intellectual stuff. That should satisfy Arnab Goswami. “You are either with this absurdity that is going on or against it”. What’s your position? That is the challenge Justice Arnab throws up to panelists over the Salman Rushdie issue and many other issues. (What is really wrong with this man?) Somewhere in the middle of Arnab’s 90 minute Newshour (January 23) on TimesNow Chetan Bhagat asked the most important question on the show: “Why are lunatics on the Newshour"? Arnab quickly responded by stating there are no lunatics on the Newshour, just honourable men and women. Er.. with the exception of one. And that is Arnab himself. To call him a moderator of debates would be exceptionally charitable. He out-screams and shuts out every panellist, his arms fly all over and the number of times he asks someone to “take a position” I wonder if he wouldn’t be better off discussing the Kama Sutra instead of the Rushdie issue. It’s hard to blame Arnab alone for being the lunatic. He is one among many loonies in the media. What Arnab does not appreciate is that the Govt of India has indeed taken a position on the issue; that of “lunatics”.

Here’s what the TOI writes in an editorial called “Stop the hate” about religious zealots in Kashmir: “For the past few weeks, a Christian priest and foreign NGOs have been targeted for seeking to persuade Muslim youth to give up their faith in return for liquor, women and money. One priest, Pastor Chander Mani Khanna, had to appear before a sharia court to defend himself against charges of proselytization ……The state government has remained on the sidelines when it should have ensured protection to the victims of the hate campaign”. That’s funny! Since when has concern for victims of hate been a priority for the Govt? Mind you, the piece talks about frivolous evidence and govt inaction but it doesn’t wonder why a sharia court is in operation in the first place. Forget govt protection against religious zealots, what is currently evident is that the govt itself is the zealot. Also, entities TOI refers to as ‘victims’ in Kashmir are happily practicing the same trade in many other states in India where Hindus instead of Muslims are their prey. It is just that other states do not have sharia courts yet.

From the time the Rushdie controversy erupted the centre and the Rajasthan govt have kept muslim passions played up and electoral points are scored in UP and elsewhere. As the final instalment in their plan they even cooked up stories of paid assassins out to kill Rushdie. The Mumbai police have even denied the existence of any such plot or assassins. Even if that were to be true one has to wonder why no suspects were rounded up in the face of such strong intelligence. Interestingly, dealing with the victim is what Rushdie explained in his letter to Rajiv Gandhi on his book being banned. Firstpost has reproduced that letter (excerpts):

“This really is astounding. It is as though, having identified an innocent person as a likely target for assault by muggers or rapists, you were to put that person in jail for protection. This is no way, Mr Gandhi, for a free society to behave ….. I deeply resent my book being used as a political football; what should matter to you more than my resentment is that you come out of this looking not only Philistine and anti-democratic but opportunistic.” Has anything changed since that time in 1988? Nothing! Instead, the zealots in the govt have only gotten worse in their opportunistic football.

In all of this the biggest and most evil misuse is that of the police force. It has become another football in the whole episode and will continue to be misused. Abhinav Kumar, apparently a very disturbed IPS officer, writes about the police tragedy thus in the DNA:

“What then accounts for this equally remarkable and consistent display of cowardice by our police forces? Speaking from some experience, all it would have taken for Rushdie to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival was for a senior police officer in Jaipur to reassure the organisers and Rushdie of their support and issue a stern warning to all those threatening violence and take suitable preventive measures. Instead, we are told the local police leaned on the organisers to ask Rushdie to stay away and allegedly backed it up by encouraging rumours of paid assassins being dispatched from Mumbai, something the Mumbai police denied. What is beyond doubt is that the top leadership of Rajasthan police preferred to stay silent and the forces of bigotry and obscurantism had a field day. Ask any senior officer and they have a stock answer. ‘Our first priority is to maintain law and order.’ Even if it means turning a blind eye to illegal behaviour by gangs of goons paying lip service to some extreme ideology on the right or left of the political spectrum, or promoting some bigoted vision of ethnic pride or religious hatred? What is the point of maintaining such law and order? Contrast this apathy with the alacrity with which the police will respond if one tries to shout slogans or show a black flag at a rally featuring any of our political bigwigs. Regarded as a major ‘breach of security’ and a grave professional lapse, the offender will be quickly rounded up and made to feel the full force of the law, often quite literally while the police officers on duty may well face disciplinary action for this ‘dereliction’ of duty”. Sure, along with the goons in govt and on TV, the police forces have also become lunatics.

As of now not only has Salman Rushdie withdrawn from the Jaipur Litfest but also the video conferencing has been called off by the organisers as the Rajasthan police once again feared a “law and order” situation. But for the mullahs in the govt opportunity always knocks twice. This time, American comedian Jay Leno is the focus of affection. Leno cracks some poor joke about the ‘Golden Temple’ being a summer house for presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and our govt wants an apology from him. Comedians in the US lampoon every politician and every religion and the US First amendment protects their free speech. It’s nothing new. One can understand Sikhs protesting as a group but why does it need the govt to interfere? Well, in all the noise about Rushdie, Muslims and UP elections it is quite easy to forget there are elections in Punjab too and such an opportunity to stand up for Sikh sentiments is truly a gift for the govt.

As for the media, in the last stages of the Jaipur event they were mostly on stage giving political speeches. And why not? Most of their nightly debates are laced with their own political persuasions and theatre rather than any concern for real issues. Rajdeep Sardesai tweets: “Sikhs target Jay Leno, Hindus Husain, Muslims Rushdie. Guess we are 'sensitive' people after all!” Well, well Rajdeep might like to wonder which one issues regular death threats though. And here’s the thing about Rajdeep; he conveniently forgets his own community which Ashok Malik explains in an article “Playing with fire” in the TOI and I quote: “State sensitivity to street sentiment reached such ridiculous levels that when Da Vinci Code was released in 2006, Priyaranjan Das Munshi, then the information and broadcasting minister, held back the film from cinemas till he had reviewed it in the company of Catholic priests”.  That’s the bias that rules the head of lunatics in the media as well.

There are certain issues that are simply not debatable or negotiable. But you can trust the media to reduce such issues to a farce through their mindless debates. Entering India and participating in events by a PIO is neither debatable nor negotiable. The protesting lunatics were not so visible on TV screens. But the ones emboldening the govt in suppressing such freedoms are the lunatics in the media who kill issues with mindless debates.