Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Random Thoughts



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Random Thoughts                                27 Feb 2013

Bengal is sitting on a powder keg

It is rare for the policeman to be killed on duty. It is inconceivable that a policeman can be shot dead in daylight] surrounded by colleagues, while his shooter escapes. Yet, under chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s watch, that is precisely what happened to sub inspector Tapas Choudhary on Tuesday, February 12, in the heart of Kolkata.

Media reports that trinamool leaders also told the police to arrest people from rival parties and keep off their own people. To its credit, Kolkata police went about its job competently and soon arrested Suhan and some of his associates. So far, all the people implicated in the crime seem to have links with the Trinamool. At the time of writing. Iqbal, one of the main accused, is on the run.

Today, both the Congress and CPM allege that Banerjee ‘s administration is trying to derail the investigation, because it points to people in the Trinamool. This is not hard to believe.

Since coming to power nearly two years ago, Banerjee and the party she leads have adopted a shockingly casual attitude to law and order in the state. One evening, Banerjee herself marched to a thana to order the release of her party’s goons. After a horrifying rape at Park Street, Banerjee initially denied the crime. After Kilkata police arrested some of the people involved-and proved that the rape had, indeed, occurred –Banerjee had the lead investigator, Damayanti Sen, transferred to another job.

Parallel to the process of emasculating the police, Banerjee is determined to prop up the goons who are the Trinamool’s real foot soldiers. Most of these people are petty enforcers and extortionists, who come to the aid of politicians when required. Bobby Hakim’s relationship with Iqbal illustrates this well.

Devoid of ideology, discipline and internal organization, the Trinamool is not constrained by anything other than Didi’s whims. And Didi has shown, again and again, her utter contempt for the law and the machinery to enforce it. This can only end in tears.

Adopted from TOI, Abheek Barman

ASSASSINATION OF A SONG

A young girl band is silenced in Kashmir after a fatwa. Where will the infringement on freedoms stop?

Hindustani vocalist Shubha Mudgal believes that “tradition is never static. And rules can never be imposed”. But the rules in Srinagar are being imposed by a man who blames women for getting raped and insists that men cannot be blamed if something wrong happens to women. “If they want they can sing in front of their mothers and sisters,” Bashir-ud-Din told reporters on February 5.

Aneeka says she is “too little to know whether music is un-Islamic” as the Grand Mufti decreed. But thanks to ‘wise’ men like him, the teen trio has done some serious growing up in the past week.

Section of society have clamped down - On music and art as they have a very narrow understanding of tradition.”
Adopted from India Today

Closing the mind

The narrative of hyper-nationalism and constant outrage at artistic expression is dominant today. There is no alternative narrative. This is dangerous for India.

The narrative of hyper-nationalism, hurt sentiments, constant outrage at artistic expression is dominant today. There is no alternative narrative, no alternative voice, no counter-argument to those daily upholding their religious, nationalist and regional credentials. Unless a robust alternative narrative emerges both in politics and in society, newer generations will continue to tear down paintings, burn novels and send out bloodthirsty war cries against, “traitors” and “anti-nationals”, because they will not know any better.
Adopted from HT-Sagerika Ghosh