Friday, March 27, 2009

IPL, Politics, Varun Gandhi and media

The title may look strange, but it all boils down to politics. Finally IPL has moved out of India, thanks to our home minister with an army of almost 2 millions and an equal police and paramilitary at his command has suggested that he can't guarantee protection. It throws open many possibilities. Let me analyse this. There can be two possibilities and both are dangerous. First and the secular option- Chidu is telling the truth, that the threat is real and we are incapable of handling this during election time. A few thousand Jehadis are threatening the very existence of a nation of one billion. Hold on, all seculars,  i am not telling this, it is our own secular home minister of a secular Government supported by a secular Mulayam is. Let me move to the other theory. Did somebody say all non-congress governments cleared IPL and all the five Congress governments expressed their inability. Well that opens up two more possibilities and both are dangerous. First did the Congress CM' s knew more about the terror threat than the non- Congress governments? Is center is not passing all the intel inputs to all  state governments equally?. The second one, Congress needs funds to fight elections and did we hear that IPL is a cash rich cow?? No i am only guessing as i thought it can't be a coincidence.

Coming to Varun Gandhi issue. He has exhorted people to throw out anti-nationals and cow slaughterers. I thought both are illegal in our country. Varun was a little stupid if the tapes are to be believed as he used the M word while describing anti- nationals.  The media went overboard and were definitely selective in reporting the speech. It did everything to start a communal riot. At the end of the day i saw some glum faces in the media. I was not sure whether they were really hurt by the comment or were disappointed that it didn t cause riots and they lost a golden opportunity to win a few Padma awards and probably some more grant from secular people! Now coming back to freedom of speech and expression. When Hindu Gods were painted in nude and a group opposed it, all secularists and thinkers were for freedom, never mind it hurt a few. Now why different yardsticks? It might have hurt a few but then Varun is entitled to have his opinion, just like the people who burnt down effigies of Bush, few shops, cars and buses in India when Saddam was hanged in Iraq. It hurt a lot of followers of Bush and a patriot like me.  but who cares? Coming back to our own secular Sangliana, ex police chief of Bangalore. He openly threatened to form a armed gang to attck the people who create touble for Christian community. Being an ex police officer and MP, is not hate speech?. I don't know and i am no expert with the constitution but will this not amount for sedition? Why the press and the thinkers of Banagalore were silent on this? Well they were out in large numbers on the street to protest and protect loose, forward and pub going pink chaddis!          
               

2 comments:

  1. Vivek,

    A timely article.It is very much true that , there is always different yardstick when it comes to Indian politics. We always wear different glasses looking at two major parties.
    However, I feel mostly every small issue is given importance and blown out of proportion just because of media hype . May be , if people start ignoring these kind of things , the situation may improve.

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  2. It is definitely true that our politicians are experts at vote bank politics. I think no other country's politicians are so good at it. Minority has a major say in the policies of the government than the majority.
    The media should definitely be more responsible and play a constructive role.
    I see very bleak chances of something drastic happening in the coming elections. The same chaos, Opportunist politics will persist unless a major "surgery" in the whole system takes place..

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