“He who joyfully marches to
music, rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large
brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein
According to a TOI report
some 4000 soldiers have died since
1999 for various reasons when there has been no “official war”. There is
something strange about soldiers being recruited in the Army. Quite a lot of
them are from villages, rural towns and mostly from poor families. There are villages
in Rajasthan and Himachal that have at least one veteran or soldier in the
army. There are villages in Rajasthan where at least one member of every family
is in the Army or is a veteran. You know… young men and women around the age of
21-22 willing to die for their country if required. Many, if not all, fortunate
ones in the same age-group are addicted to the latest mobiles, malls and movie
stars. The slogan “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”
does seem to have a deep meaning and prudence. It’s either the farmer or the
soldier who is dying lately. Very frequently!
Last night some TV channels were discussing Captain Saurabh Kalia the soldier who first
noticed the Kargil infiltration in 1999. He and five others were captured,
tortured and their dead bodies returned to India by Pakistan. There was Arnab Goswami on TimesNow talking about him. And yes, there was Barkha Dutt, the Kargil heroine, on NDTV. Both channels had to discuss Capt. Kalia with some Pakistani
guests also. Barkha was looking to an open and honest discussion and the Pakistani,
Gen. Qureshi, decided he had enough and it was pointless. I’m even amazed that
it takes him to tell her that it’s pointless talking to a representative of
your enemy of that war about a situation. Well, Barkha and Arnab show you how
intelligent our media is and how concerned our govt is. Barkha even ended her
program with the words that it takes something sensational to talk about our
war heroes. So what was this sudden reason to talk about Saurabh Kalia? Well,
after 13 years of waiting his father, Dr. NK Kalia, has petitioned the Supreme
Court to direct the GOI to seek an apology from Pakistan for “war crimes” in returning the body of
his son tortured.
“Kargil martyr Saurabh Kalia's torture: Violations by Pakistan unacceptable, says government”
says the NDTV report. If you read the headline you’d think our govt has
suddenly woken up and it had nothing to do with the SC petition by Kalia’s
father. Yeah, the UPA govt that doesn’t observe Kargil Diwas. The same UPA
whose prince charming, Rahul Gandhi,
claimed on November 4 that the Congress had generously supported the BJP during
the Kargil war. We are just past another anniversary of 26/11. I remember during the 26/11 attacks TimesNow and Arnab had
screamed “We will never forget”. And
yet within a couple of months TOI was running a crap campaign called “Aman Ki Asha”. So much for never
forgetting dead people and soldiers! And Barkha Dutt? Oh yes; the one who
reported breathlessly from Mumbai during 26/11. In less than 48 hours, even
before the blood on the streets and the targeted buildings had dried and were
washed she was doing an episode of “We the people” right from Mumbai on
November 30, 2008. This episode was angrily titled “Enough is enough”.
In a tweet on 26/11 this year Barkha called it an “act of war”. I suppose same as Kargil. She also states privilege
offers no protection and terrorism is an awful leveller. If you decide to watch
the video of that program you will find that except for one Shameem Khan, who
lost 4 members of his family, all the rest could be categorized as the
“privileged”. Of course, the panellists on the program were poor people who had
experienced terror themselves – Ness Wadia, Simi Garewal, Bachi Karkaria, Ratna
Pathak, Kunal Kohli, Luke Kenny etc. and one former police officer M.N. Singh.
Barkha’s outrage over the act of war and her histrionics were on full display
that night. After a heated exchange between Simi and a guy from the audience
she even told everyone: “Will you all do
what I ask? Can we have dignified silence please?”. Such was the outrage.
Here are some quotes from her (in blue) at the beginning of the program:
Home Minister (Maharashtra) and many more heads
are expected to roll. Oh yes. RR
Patil, then HM did roll. He even said somewhere that such attacks happen in
many cities. Well, what do you know; he’s back and is still the HM of
Maharashtra.
We are going to tell our politicians that we
don’t necessarily trust them. And the politician she had on the program?
Oh, that was Abhishek Singhvi. Yes,
the same guy who was suspended for his physical escapades and is now back on
all channels again as Congress spokesman. She also had Milind Deora, who is currently a minister.
Justice for this, justice for that! These are frequent campaigns run by
our media. And in the run up to 26/11 what are some of the great deeds our
politicians were busy with? 2G, Cash for votes, CWG scam, Hasan Ali and his
black money which has ended nowhere, Adarsh scam, Aircel-Maxis. Within hours of
26/11 ending Vilasrao Deshmukh his son Riteish and Ramgopal Verma were on a
terror tour inside the Taj hotel. At an all-party meeting the PM announced
there would be four more hubs of NSG. That
would mean more Saurabh Kalias and Unnikrishnans will be happy to serve. What
happens once the war is over and all the patriotic screaming is over in the
media? They get back to their games of hosting our enemies. Especially, the
architect of Kargil – Parvez Musharraf.
Politicians and our media seem to have a strange love affair with those
who plot the destruction of our nation. Even when Musharraf has ceased to hold
any official position our media seems to believe he is the one with the wisdom
on leadership and future of India. So you have the Kargil heroine running
everywhere to interview him. You have the India
Today Conclave hosting him, you have HT
Summit hosting him. And he’s a frequent guest on both NDTV and CNN-IBN. These channels are often hyper-patriotic
and even have special songs composed for some special occasions. A report from The Hindu in May 2012 describes
certain incidents that the guys in the army seem to routinely experience. This
was after a ‘Sahayak’, someone who’s
like a valet, was beaten up. It talks about simmering class-tensions and feudal
mindset in the army too. Musharraf comes to our land tells us he doesn’t regret
Kargil, he tells us Muslims in India need a better deal and cracks jokes that
make our media celebs laugh. During the India Today Conclave in 2009 Maulana Madani, an MP, gave a stinging
response to Musharraf’s concerns about Indian Muslims and asked him politely
not to worry. (See video) The
host, Arun Poorie of India Today, was left dumb and speechless.
If not that Musharraf guy there’s always that other one. Yes, the other
national pastime of our media folks, especially Barkha Dutt, is none other than
Imran Khan. Our media seems to
campaign for him as PM as much as they do for, say, Rahul Gandhi. He was here
again this month and had reassuring words for India: If the Kashmir issue is not resolved there may be more 26/11s. And
since we talk about “levellers” what levels everything better than Cricket, eh?
Playing cricket with Pakistan with top politicians watching levels everything.
In the 2011 world cup match at Chandigarh the Pakistan and Indian PM with their
entourage were there cheering the players. After the match NDTV even put up
banner with the jubilant Indian team and their lucky mascot Rahul Gandhi. And
now the GOI has decided to honour Saurabh Kalia, Sandeep Unnikrishnan and many
other fallen soldiers of Kargil and 26/11 by hosting another Indo-Pak series in
December 2012. Idiots who scream
patriotism every other day will, of course, turn out to watch the matches and
the media will make another neat pile. It’s now called ‘Cricket Diplomacy’.
Saurabh Kalia is dead while his father has been fighting a lot more battles. He’s
taken the latest one to the Supreme Court.
If Saurabh Kalia had returned alive with his limbs broken or blinded he
would have lived a miserable life running from pillar to post fighting for
pensions and dues from the GOI. Fighting in Kargil was probably easier for our
soldiers. If there’s anything left our politicians will make sure they will
screw it up with an Adarsh scam over land supposedly allotted for Kargil
heroes. Oh yes, how can we forget? There’s LK
Advani, Dy. PM during Kargil, who went to Pakistan-Yatra to certify Jinnah
was secular. Our Laloos and Bollywood celebs frequently go on a pilgrimage to
that holy country. Lately, even the very secular Nitish Kumar was on a ‘Tirth yatra’ in Pakistan. A wag once
commented Tamils in Sri Lanka don’t matter because they aren’t vote-banks but
Pakistan matters because of Muslim vote-banks in India. I wouldn’t disagree.
Pakistan is a vote-bank for our ‘secular’ forces.
What about our Cricketers? Aren’t they somewhat similar to soldiers?
They wear India colours; often display patriotism covering themselves with the
Indian flag. There’s a little guy who turns up at every match painted in the
tri-colour just to support Tendulkar. Some of these cricketing celebs live
under high security. The same security provided by the likes of those who die
in Kargil or on the streets of Mumbai, like Tukaram Omble. People protesting is one thing, it is time these
Cricketers stood up, showed some spine and said NO to playing Pakistan in a
bilateral series. This is no world cup or international tournament where we don’t
have a say. This is our own choice.
“The greatest patriotism is to
tell your country when it is behaving dishonourably, foolishly, viciously.”―
Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot.
Our policy towards Pakistan is not and never has been driven by a
National Compass. It has always been driven by personal opinions, situations
and stupidity. The cricketers now have a chance to stand up and do the right
thing by the Kalias, Unnikrishnans, Ombles and many of our fallen men and
women. They have the chance to show they not only have brains but also a spine
independent of the BCCI and the GOI. They
can imagine the plight and suffering of the families of those who died and
imagine twenty two yards of dead bodies and not necessarily a cricket pitch.
