counterreport.com

Religion is a belief.

A belief is a widely professed line of thought.

A strong thought does not need support.

A thought that needs support is like an effervescent bubble, it has to burst one day, like the thought of terrorism or the thought of regionalism.

In fact, support belittles the thought that it professes to support - like a religious terrorist belittles the God he professes to support.

That God is no God who needs support to exist.

Whether, you may believe or not believe, but please don’t try to support religion.

Think.

Think.

Think harder.

(the underlying message is : religion is not so small that it needs your support)

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I am as pained at the terror attacks as anyone else in India. And even sad at the failure to let the terrorists in so far in India to be able to hit at some well recognized places and hold fort for a long time.

Well, the similarity ends here as I see that most of the people who appeared on the television to air their comments are baying for blood. No I’m not so highly impressed as some others at the commando’s work. Since, all of the hostages got killed, due to probably the politicians’ pressure to get this drama off the national news channels. And helped by the public, who egged on for a T20 finish!

I am also not impressed by the national news channels coverage of the event, who in their enthusiasm were letting out critical information, and none of the political or police was ready to ask them to shut up till they clear the situation.

Even the comments of the captured terrorist, ( hailing from Faridkot in Pakistan) which were sensitive information, were turned into a jingoistic ballad about Pakistan.

And to top it, now the baying for blood stance of people who want heads to roll.. makes me think that the politicians had attacked mumbai. Well, there was certainly a gaffe by a few politicians, but certainly, making us believe that the situation was preventable, is akin to laughing at our own intelligence. The truth is that if well armed and well trained people fed on jingoist religious diet, are let loose within the common masses at any time, there are going to be casualties much before help arrives. Let us not force politicians to take decisions which are going to cost us dearer in terms of the spend out of our taxes. Whether the NSG is located in Mumbai or Delhi, they can’t reach any spot with 30 minutes to save the damage. So, what is the point creating unnecessary expense. And again, an IL 76 cannot be stationed on all locations and would not be required all the time except when you want around 200 commandos to report to duty.

And please, the protection asked for by some mumbaikars, should also be extended to each and every citizen of the country.. or let each person wanting to be over-protected pay extra for it. Did not 2 prime ministers of this country (Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi) given the maximum protection possible, get slain by terrorists? So what protection level can be given to common man? Let us be practical!

The only way out is to be responsive to situations. And give swift decisions and justice and then carry out the edicts.. Only this can deter terrorists.. as inaction allows more terrorists to be born.

And please cut the rhetoric.. don’t take us back from here..

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A lot of people in the past few years have asked for a better spend on Mumbai on the basis of the reason that a large part of taxes comes from mumbai. This came in the wake of regular flooding, but the words came to mean much later that Mumbaikars be treated as special ones, or different from the rest. And this rhetoric started from Shabana Azmi, Pritish Nandy and carried on by a few others including Shobha De. Now, I don’t bother much about Shobha De, but it hurts that Pritish Nandy or Shabana Azmi, can mention this…

And then Raj Thakeray saw this opportunity. He combined the rhetoric to an anti-bihari stance and he was sitting on a volcano. Only that he opened the mouth of the volcano and singed a city .. in one stroke.

The intelligentsia was dumbfounded.. it may not have meant this but they couldn’t go back without a foot in their mouth. And by the time the intelligentsia gathered their senses, Mumbai was burning!

And, even the usually vitriolic Balasaheb Thackeray was stunned. And when he gathered his wits, he had already lost half his vote bank! And others did make a mention here and there.. and Kamal Khan went on to get his 15 minutes of fame when others were badly placed for words..
He made a movie starring himself mouthing a few bold statements and got to feature on all national TV channels. In fact his trailor ran longer than his movie, deshdrohi.. was a testimony to the shallow attempt.

But it sadly went on to claim a life of a impressionable young fellow, Rahul Raj from Patna.. who supposedly came to kill Raj Thackeray and hijacked a BEST bus and fired a gun shot, but was shot dead maybe 20 kilometers away from Raj Thackeray. Phew! that was a close call, at least Mumbai Police would have us believe that..

And having Raj Thackeray carry on with business as usual creating a virtual state of similarly frustrated sounding youth. Well, for a Bihari to come to Mumbai has started sounding like a crime. Well, no wonder, when Indians are maltreated abroad, we see a Raj Thackeray there too defending his fiefdom. Well, I hope sane people can prevail over this uncalled for ban to suit one person’s personal agenda.

And suddenly being a Mumbaikar has started sounding bad!

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Milkha Singh was upset when Anju Bobby George said in an interview to Malyalam Maonrama Television channel “I am looking up to only world standard athletes - Milkha singh and Usha are only Asian level athletes.”

In 2004, Milkha Singh was pinning his Olympics hopes on Anju.  But, before 2008 Olympics when Anju said that no Indian athlete is a world class athlete, we suddenly have Milkha Singh remember that Anju Bobby George has not been able to surpass her previous best in the last 4 years.

And after the Olympics, Milkha Singh lambasting her and asking for an action against Anju by IOA (Indian Olympic Association) and AFI (athletics Federation of India) as she could not complete even a single valid jump

Milkha Singh and PT Usha reacted to the comment very personally, though the Anju Bobby George comment was in reply to a question, who was her idol in India.  And when she said none, since there was no world class athlete that India had produced, she was asked specifically about why Milkha Singh or PT Usha were not world class athletes. And she had to clarify.

The reality is that the world produces 100s of world class athletes every 4 years, and the nearest measure of those is an Olympics Medal. Now, when after 100 years of Olymics and some 2000-3000 world class athletes, no Indian is in that list, so should an aspiring Olympian be forced to chose someone below the top 2000-3000 athletes in the world, just because they are supposed to have an Indian to be their idol. Notwithstanding Anju’s performance in Olympics, even I await  world class Indian athlete. And Anju Bobby George didn’t categorize herself as a world class athlete as well. She’s also trying to be one.. And there is definitely any need to compare who’s greater.. we are all waiting.. I am not sure if anyone else agrees?

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I think it is silly discussing it here in Peter Booth’s article. There’s a court set up and they have to decide based on evidence. Peter Booth was not there, neither were you all or I. No point discussing the morality of Ponting or Tendulkar here. We all know who was not playing fair, but the racist remark allegation should be proved only in the court setup by ICC, not you or me. You can check out this article for statement of facts, just facts.

About Booth’s remark about who runs the game, obviously he knows who does right now, so no point lamenting. People have controlled various things at various times, so no pointing ruing what is today a fact. The cricketers earn their bread from the ones who pay the money.

Third point is we are discussing a racist remark not racism which is a much higher thing since it is about biases and prejudices which impact a race’s personal growth and is beyond things said in a fit of rage to each other. It is more likely to be a well thought of and continuous set of actions. Racism is something which is much beyond these silly discussions and banana courts (nothing to do with monkeys). It is much bigger and has a very ugly face, which most of the people indulging in cerebral punching here do not understand. Some of them here (going by the language they use) are much more racists than any person you know.

Please don’t leave racist remarks. I doubt if anyone’s personal knowledge about how another country works is credible enough to be celebrated. We in India can never understand that Bastard can mean your friend, similarly i don’t expect people in Australia to understand that monkeying around in India doesn’t mean a sadist is at work. That’s the only reason that a nation has risen to defend a thought that is alleged. (words don’t count here only the intended meaning)

People consider that the owned occupation of Australia NZ and USA by whites as racist, since it is about the rights of aborigines, maurees and Red Indians. but that is not something an Englishman would ever agree to. Living in another country is ok, but owning it 100% ahead of the original race?

I will leave you with this thought.

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