Myths are important to society. What would life be if it were just full
of facts and nothing but facts? Facts count for a lot in courtrooms. In the
movie ‘Philadelphia’ the
judge tells Denzel Washington, defending an Aids-infected Tom Hanks sacked from
his job: “In this courtroom, Mr.Miller, justice is
blind to matters of race, creed, color, religion, and sexual orientation”.
That’s a nice line and could be true. Washington responds: “With all due respect, your honor, we don't live in this
courtroom, do we”? Courtrooms can claim to be blind but society isn’t.
Lies, prejudices, propaganda, myths count for a lot in society! Without these
our lives would be incomplete. Perhaps even boring! Take a look at the man in
the pic. Would you leave a child in the care of this man? There are times when
he was “Wanted” as a terrorist. He
is reputed to have unleashed some terrible acts of violence as head of a
terrorist group. These are written about him. Well, I will leave you to wonder
who he is and what happened to him.
There are other myths that are even funny. For instance it’s a myth
that Hindi is our only National language.
It’s not; it’s just one of many. Now, hold your breath this next one will shock
you. We don’t have a National game even. Most of us were brought up thinking Hockey is our national game. It took a
young girl to establish the fact and destroy the myth, and probably the
happiness of some. This same girl had previously established that the title of
‘Father of nation’ wasn’t conferred
on MKGandhi by anyone (See report). That seems alright
though. Titles like “Mahatma” or “Father of nation” can’t really be official
govt titles. But having created the myth of the “Father” nobody dare question
it for fear of rebuke or censure. It does sound, though, as if all others who fought
and made sacrifices for the nation were toddlers. It can even be argued that it
would be more realistic to call Sardar Patel, who is credited with uniting
India as we know it, the real “father of the nation”. Historians often lie, media sells propaganda
and school text books are manipulated to create many myths. One of the modern
day myths perpetrated in India is about Sonia
Gandhi. Umm.. she’s the equivalent of Mother
Teresa as some would have us believe.
Don’t laugh, this is serious. I got to know recently that Sonia Gandhi
was recommended for the Nobel Peace prize this year. That’s not all. This is
the 9th time in a row that she has
been recommended for that prize. The organisation consistently recommending
her is called ‘International Awakening Centre’. Oops! Another IAC! So I tried to find out what this
particular IAC is and didn’t get very far. All I could learn is that they have
an office somewhere in Delhi and do all kinds of social work. Ah! I guess one
of those nice NGOs. Now hold your breath! In the latest letter recommending
SoniaG for the Nobel this IAC’s head Majaz
Mungeri equated her with MotherTeresa for her global work for peace. Global work? For peace? Mother
Teresa? Suddenly I feel like a poorly informed citizen. SoniaG presides over the most corrupt govt India or any modern democracy in the world has ever seen. There have been various incidents of police brutalities. A Nobel Peace Prize would be quite a political coup, wouldn't it?
In over 100 years since its inception only one Indian has won the Nobel
Peace Prize: Mother Teresa (MT) in 1979. Even she is considered an Albanian and
not an original Indian. Despite my best efforts I have never found anything
that in anyway constitutes MT’s work as contributing to peace. Not relevant
though. MT herself is surrounded by a lot of myths. Not all agree on her
“saintly” deeds. In one particular instance her staunch critic, the late Christopher Hitchens, recalls:
Mother Teresa “has checked into some of the
finest and costliest clinics and hospitals in the West during her bouts with
heart trouble and old age.” The author mentions her visit to Haiti and her
endorsement of the Duvaliers, the source of much deprivation of the poor in
Haiti. Also, her acceptance of stolen money from Charles Keating, “now serving
a ten-year sentence for his part in the savings and loan scandal.” Keating, a
“Catholic fundamentalist”, gave Mother Teresa one and a quarter million dollars
and “the use of his private jet.” During the course of Keating’s trial, Mother
Teresa wrote Judge Ito asking clemency and asked Ito “to do what Jesus would
do.” One of the prosecutors in the trial wrote her telling her “of 17,000
individuals from whom Mr. Keating stole $252,000,000.” He added, “You urge
Judge Ito to look into his heart–as he sentences Charles Keating–and do what
Jesus would do. I submit the same challenge to you. Ask yourself what Jesus
would do if he were given the fruits of a crime; what Jesus would do if he were
in possession of money that had been stolen; what Jesus would do if he were
being exploited by a thief to ease his conscience.” The prosecutor asked her to
return the money, and offered to put her “in direct contact with the rightful
owners of the property now in your possession.” This supposed paragon of virtue
never replied to his letter. (Also read articles here and here).
Chartered flights. Not recognising corruption or responding to it. Treatment
in costly hospitals in the west. Aha.. I can see where the comparison of Sonia
Gandhi to MT comes from. MKGandhi was nominated 13 times and rejected (read full details here). Even Jawaharlal Nehru was nominated 11 times and rejected (read here). That must have been
tiring. I’m not sure if Indira Gandhi was nominated but the Congress govt went
one better in 1986. They just created the ‘Indira Gandhi Peace Prize’. Well, if Nehru-Gandhis can’t win a Nobel Peace
Prize (NPP) what stops us from creating one in their name, eh? Isn’t it an
irony that a national peace prize is named after the lady who imposed
Emergency, throttled freedoms and jailed thousands of dissenters? There are
many Mungeris in our society who like to create myths.
The NPP has been mostly awarded to Europeans and Americans with stray
exceptions from the other parts of the world. Without ascribing any motives it
does appear that Europe matters most to the NPP. So no surprise that this year,
2012, they awarded the prize to the European
Union. Why? Oh.. it seems they hung on to their ‘economy’ or saved it or something like that. So either this NPP
committee is blind or Norway doesn’t like us. (Remember that child custody
thing?) How in hell did these folks forget Sonia Gandhi’s contribution to
saving the European economy? Time to remind those folks. Let’s catch up with
respected journalist M.D. Nalapat (Sonia’s $12B gift to Europe):
“The latest gift to Europe is a cash transfer
of $10 billion, evidently on top of the $2 billion already committed to the IMF.
That the euro is in a terminal state is obvious. There is no way that Italy and
even France can escape monetary and economic disaster.... Rather than throw
money away by giving funds to an IMF controlled by Christine Lagarde for the
sole purpose of getting the rest of the world to hand over their surpluses to
the profligate in Europe, it would have been better to invest in gold or in
assets, including assets abroad. Instead, PM Manmohan Singh, who knows the mind
of his political boss well and has therefore been able to continue in office
without interruption, has handed over a further $10 billion to the IMF. This at
a time when the fiscal deficit of his recklessly extravagant government is
reaching crisis levels. The Indian economy cannot afford to gift - for that is
what any loan to certain European countries is - even $10 million. The economy
is just two to three years away from bankruptcy. The decision of the Sonia-led
ruling coalition to throw taxpayer money away is in line with other policies
that favour Europe at the expense of India”.
The man whose pic you saw in the first para is none other than Menachem Begin, former PM of Israel (on the right in this pic). He
played an important hand in the liberation and creation of Israel. In 1981 he
bombed Iraq’s nuclear facilities in
a pre-emptive attack. It’s the 50th
anniversary of 1962 Indo-China war. Peace cannot be achieved and
maintained without the willingness to fight for it. Mahatma Gandhi wasn’t too keen on the idea of having an Army, Navy or
Air-force for the country. A former army man tweeted Nehru stated police
are enough to take care of the defence of our country. In the face of most
violent terrorist attacks from Pakistan on Indian soil the SoniaG led UPA is busy making peace without any
justice for the victims. Some crazy folks even want to play cricket with
Pakistan. Some in the media don’t tire of telling us about people-to-people
contact and their love for “Aman Ki Asha”.
Even if one overlooks all that, SoniaG is responsible for the attack on a
peaceful, sleeping crowd at Ramlila grounds on the midnight of June 4, 2011.
One woman, Rajbala, died. But hey, we like myths and some will keep nominating
her for the NPP. You just have to wonder who these people are.
Menachem Begin was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 jointly with Egypt’s president Anwar Sadat. This was after a peace accord signed at Camp
David, USA and after Egypt finally recognised Israel. Begin died in peace in
1983 and was buried in Israel. Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981 for making
peace with Israel. Back home one will see more myths of SoniaG’s global work
for peace.
