Sena and the Insane ways…

The Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) love being in the news, don’t they? What better fodder to make headlines other than taking on someone like a Shahrukh Khan? The actor’s comments on the non-inclusion of Pakistani cricketers in the IPL didn’t take much time for Newton’s third law to come into play.  On one hand, if SRK has managed to earn praises from all quarters for his ‘im not gonna budge’ stand against the Sainiks, the Sena on the other hand seems to be digging its own grave. While dealing with SRK, the Sena also wants to take on Rahul Gandhi simultaneously.

The ‘Maharashtra for Marathis’ attitude of the Shiv Sena has not only irked thousands of people across the country but also many a minds of the saffron family too, with the RSS clearly opposing the Sena’s view.  Some BJP leaders are even reported to have watched a special screening of the SRK starrer ‘My Name Is Khan’ pretty much in contrast to the Sena activists tearing down the film’s posters across the city.  If Shiv Sena continues to behave the way it is doing now, it might well lose whatever little political hold it possesses over the Marathi territory. People are smart enough to judge things and if the previous elections (which saw the Congress retain power in the state in spite of the 26/11 episode) are anything to go by, the time may well have come for Sena to Rest in Peace.

National Game in Crisis

Indian hockey seems to be in dire straits at the moment. Key players continue to stay reluctant with their ‘no pay, no play’ stand. Although Hockey India (HI) may well be trying to project these players in negative light stating that money is more important for them than playing for the country, it cannot escape the payment of dues issue. HI it is reported, doesn’t have enough money to pay the players. Where then is all the money going?

Hockey India also earns sufficiently from sponsors. Yes, the Indian hockey board may not be as wealthy as the cricket board. Nevertheless, it certainly may not be too poor to pay the men who represent it on the field. The chief sponsor for Indian cricket team ‘Sahara’ is also the sponsor for the Indian hockey. With a big fish like Sahara sponsoring it, how can the HI say that it doesn’t have money?   

Many have expressed dissatisfaction at the HI’s approach. “The players get paid for appearing for their employers, so why not from Hockey India?” asked Olympian and former India coach Joaquim Carvalho. Another Olympian Mukesh Kumar said “We had fought for match fee in 1996 and 1998 but the then IHF president, KPS Gill, not only denied us our due but also threw out six seniors. We were humiliated and forced to apologise. This lot has taken things further. One hopes the current lot is successful in getting something their predecessors couldn’t”.

Not Quite ‘Leading From The Front’

H D Deve Gowda’s abusing of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has triggered reactions from all quarters. The BJP party workers have taken to the streets. Whether Yediyurappa is at fault is another question. But as a former Prime Minister and a major political party supremo, Deve Gowda could have done away with those abuses for a simple reason that it has a negative effect on the people who look up to him.

Leaders in our country fail to realize time and again that they are people who must set examples for the other citizens of the country. Unfortunately we see those setting bad examples – whether it is the case of hurling abuses or whether behaving in an uncivilized manner in the Houses of parliaments and legislative assemblies. Very recently we had an MLC misbehaving in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly where he pulled out the microphone of the speaker of the House. A video footage of MLCs in North India throwing chairs and destroying furniture in the Assembly had qualified for the ‘Amazing videos’ section of an international TV channel a few years ago. Look who’s leading the nation!

Racial Profiling Will Aggravate Terror Mindset

Barack Obama in his response to the failed Detroit bombing episode has directed the country’s transport authorities to enhance screening procedures for US bound passengers traveling through “state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest”. What it means is, if you are a passenger belonging to or flying via countries mentioned in the list i.e. Cuba, Sudan, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen, then an additional screening of yours is inevitable.

The bold step taken by the coerced US President has certainly raised a few eyebrows. The fact that all passengers belonging to the cited countries irrespective of who they are, will be treated as terror suspects is bound to trigger discontentment, specially in the Arab world. There are no two ways about the issue that security is one of the key priorities of any country and steps have to be taken to undertake the safety of innocent people. In this case however, Obama seems to have overreacted as many would opine.

It always has to be first things first. The US authorities could and should find out the loopholes in their security issues in the first place. By Obama’s own admission, it was a potentially disastrous ‘screw up’ by the intelligence. Reports quoted him as saying “the US government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack, but our intelligence community failed to connect those dots which would have placed the suspect on the no-fly list”. It was revealed that the father of the Nigerian terror suspect had informed the US officials about his son. In spite of the warning, if US could not avert what happened, then it really should be blaming itself.

The United States has, off late been criticized of holding up innocent people for interrogations related to terrorism. The latest move might well add to that distasteful reputation. Besides, the countries mentioned in the list are predominantly Muslim. Yes, countries such as Indonesia and even India that have a great deal of Muslim populace, do not figure in the list but individuals from such countries may well be pulled aside for the screenings. In August 2009, none other than Shahrukh Khan was detained at one of the airports of US since his surname Khan flashed at the alert screens!

Besides, countries such as North Korea do not find a place in the list. It is no secret that the US is suspicious about North Korea and their relations are not quite healthy thanks to nuclear issues. North Korea too figures in notorious terrorist activities. In November 1987, North Korean agents had set a time bomb on board Korean Airlines Flight 858 flying from Baghdad via Bangkok and Abu Dhabi, en route to Seoul in their attempt to “bomb the Korean Airline aircraft to obstruct the Seoul Olympics” as per the Overseas Intelligence Division of the KWP.  In 1988 the US State Department had designated North Korea as “a state sponsor of terrorism.” It could also be recalled that in December 2002, Spanish troops boarded and detained a shipment of Scud missiles from North Korea destined for Yemen, at the United States’ request.

The so called ‘Islamic terrorism’ is primarily seen as a vengeance phenomenon caused as a result of the treatment meted out to the Muslim world be it Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and the like. In such a case, the racial profiling that the US has now come up with, will only aggravate that fury and may well result in the creation of some more terrorists.

The racial profiling by US now alters the famous notion ‘All Muslims are not Al-Qaeda, but all Al-Qaeda are Muslims’ into ‘All Muslims ARE Al-Qaeda’. Disheartening, indeed.

(This article by Abrar Khan has been published on www.iviews.com The link- http://www.iviews.com/Articles/articles.asp?ref=IV1001-4034 )

Hashim Amla: Honesty Personified

  

South African Hashim Amla is one cricketer who has earned the reputation of being a great sportsman with his honest approaches.

In the ongoing test match against England at Newlands, Cape Town, Amla faced a delivery from Stuart Broad, the English paceman, that appeared to have nicked and carried to the wicket keeper. The English players all went up in an instant and convincing appeal for the caught behind. The umpire ruled it as not out, much to the bewilderment of the Englishmen. What the commentator said at that moment is what is worth noting. He said ‘Amla is one cricketer who when he knows he’s out, he’ll walk. Looking at the body language of Amla, you feel that’s not out’. The TV replays later confirmed that it really was not out.

He had earlier become everyone’s darling when he forgave Australian commentator Dean Jones who had called him a ‘terrorist’ during the South Africa-Sri Lanka series in August 2006.

Telangana:Separatist Attitude Has The Last Laugh

The Telangana movement has certainly turned on the heat and quite expectedly, its success is bound to inspire many a movements demanding separate states across the country – Gorkhaland in Bengal, Vidarbha in Maharashtra, and so on. The ‘we want to be separated’ attitude is not a novel concept though. It happened during the very formation of Independent India when Pakistan was carved out of Indian mainland in 1947. The Hurriyat Conference continues to demand an independent Kashmir. Kasaragod and Manjeshwar belong to Kerala, much to the displeasure of Karnataka. Similarly, Maharashtra wants to grab hold of Belgaum from Karnataka.

No matter who benefits in this political tug of war, it is the treatment meted out to the common man that matters at the end of the day. As long as the layman of Hyderabad continues to struggle for his basic needs, that of his locality, and peace, it is not going to make any difference to him whether he is part of ‘Andhra Pradesh’ or ‘Telangana’. One only hopes that the aam aadmi benefits from whatever outcome the days to follow have in store for us.

Liberhan Debate: Congress ain’t innocent either

The Liberhan report was tabled in the Parliament and was subjected to great debate. Primarily, it was the Congress led UPA trying to do the mud slinging act against its arch rival BJP. Although the entire nation has the common sense to figure out that the BJP was indeed involved in bringing down of the structure, the Congress too isn’t completely innocent. One does get the feeling that although the Congress tries to portray itself as a custodian of secularism, it has maintained silence on many an occasion where it could have acted upon to control communal violence in the country even before the Babri episode. All said and done, who was the ruling party at the Centre when the mosque was razed? It was the Congress. No matter what the party says today, the truth remains that it could have and should have stopped what went down in the history of Independent India as one of the darkest chapters of intolerance.

If Mother Mary Could Speak…

I  close my eyes and I find Mother Mary before me. Along with the aura of her blessed face, I see a semblance of sorrow accompanying it. I try asking ‘Oh pious lady! One of the most virtuous women to have ever set foot on the earth…What makes you wear that grief-stricken look?’

In reply, silence is all that I get. I open my eyes and say to myself, ‘better luck next time’.

I then happen to browse through the internet and I find one of the pictures of her statues somewhere in France. The typical mournful look on her face is what I find yet again.

I make my own permutations and combinations. I try figuring out what could be troubling Mother Mary so much? Incidentally, I happen to come across a news story as I browse, about the ban on Hijab or the burkha on women in France. I say to myself, perhaps this is it. One might wonder what has Mother Mary got to do with the Hijab? Well, the way I see it, there’s hardly any difference between the clothes that Mother Mary is seen wearing and the Islamic Hijab worn by the Muslim women.

Perhaps Mother Mary wants to say ‘I dread people will call for ban on my clothing as well. They didn’t bother one iota before they made my blessed son look trendy and ‘cool’ not too long ago’. (Yes, it’s about the ‘Jesus in Jeans’ statue unveiled in a Church in East Essex, England) The last thing she would want is people making her wear mini skirts.

Quiet possible that Mother Mary is unhappy about the allegation laid on the followers of a faith that regard her son as one of the mightiest messengers of God, that they suppress their women by making them dress like her. It’s a misconception that Islam subjugates women by imposing the Hijab on them. The reason for Hijab for women in Islam is mentioned in the Glorious Quran which makes it clear that it is to protect women from being molested. A lesser known fact is that the Quran talks about Hijab for men before women. The Quran commands every believing man to lower his gaze on the sight of women in order to restrain him from feasting on the beauty of the female body. Islam has got no issues with a woman being a career woman, gives her the right to education and inherit property, does not approve of a marriage without her consent,  allows her to involve in business transactions and the like as long as she carries out her activities within the framework of the shariah. Ask a lady who wears the Islamic hijab and you’ll know that she wants to guard her modesty and expects to be respected.

In fact, subduing of women is something of a global significance. If you thought women in the West, with all its democratic principles, live a life of liberation and empowerment, think again. Even in our dear country India, which boasts of a modest lifestyle and rich cultural heritage, assault on women is alarming. According to the data released by the Union Home Ministry, India stands third in the list of most registered rape cases in the world, with 18,359 rape cases being registered in the first three quarters of 2008. The first place goes to the US with 93,934 cases followed by South Africa with 54,926 rape cases, as reported by www.newsx.com. The country with the lowest number of rape cases registered according to the report, is Jordan, (only 78 cases) where 92% of the total population is Muslim.

Yvonne Ridley, a journalist from UK who made headlines after her 10 day captivity under the Taliban in Afghanistan, writes in one of her articles ‘How I Came To Love The Veil’ that was published on her official website www.yvonneridley.org, “Western women are still treated as commodities, where sexual slavery is on the rise, disguised under marketing euphemisms, where womens’ bodies are traded throughout the advertising world. This is a society where rape, sexual assault, and violence on women is commonplace, a society where the equality between men and women is an illusion, a society where a womens’ power or influence is usually only related to the size of her breasts.” Further, she goes on to reveal “I used to look at veiled women as quiet, oppressed creatures and now I look at them as multi-skilled, multi-talented, resilient women whose brand of sisterhood makes Western feminism pale into insignificance.”

Here’s an unnoticed example of women exploitation that we saw in the Indian Premiere League (IPL) season II that concluded in South Africa not too long ago. In a match played between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Mumbai Indians at Port Elizabeth, a venue known for its windy conditions, we saw most of the players on the field wearing double jerseys and sweaters and a few in the dug out wrapped in towels. Even the commentators who would come out on the filed to fill in some telecast time during the 10 minute strategic time out, were seen fully clad in thick jackets and monkey caps, trying to combat the chilly weather. But there was this contingent of cheergirls who continued to be in action (or were ordered to do so) in those skimpy outfits in that very chilly weather, making a mockery of the equal rights for women mantra that the ‘civilized’ societies talk about.

Mr. Sarkozi’s concern for the womenfolk deserves appreciation. But perhaps he needs to ask the womenfolk themselves whether they feel ‘subjugated’ in the hijab before really making conclusions. There are a whole lot of things that decide the actual suppression of women than her abundantly covered body.

Even as her son strived to tell his people what is good and what is not, I wonder if Mother Mary with her fully clad attire ever felt subjugated.

Phew… If only Mother Mary could speak….

Alcohol Needs Just 6 Minutes To Act: Research

A research conducted in Heidelberg, Washington, has concluded that 6 minutes is all it takes for alcohol to disrupt normalcy in the brain.

According to a report, scientists using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS)  have shown that only six minutes after consuming an amount of alcohol equivalent to three glasses of beer or two glasses of wine — which leads to a blood alcohol level of 0.05 to 0.06 per cent — can cause changes in the brain cells.

Reference – http://ibnlive.in.com/news/it-takes-just-6-minutes-for-booze-to-fuzz-the-brain/94997-17.html

It was even demonstrated that the harmful effect of alcohol also sets in quickly. No wonder we have alarming statistics from across the world against alcohol consumption. According to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, there are 105,000 alcohol related deaths annually due to drunken drivers and alcohol related injuries and diseases.

Alcohol, many a time, is the root cause of all evil. In a state of intoxication, there are always greater chances of a person committing crimes such as murder, rape, theft, and many more.

All the more reason why one should distance oneself from that abominable stuff.

Azad Gives Azadi To Smoke On Screen

The newly formed cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been in the news for various reasons. However, one of the members of that Dream Team, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who has taken over the mantle of Health Ministry, has made headlines already. He gives a clean chit to portrayal of smoking on screen, much in contrast with the views of his predecessor Ambumani Ramadoss. Azad is of the view that smoking on screen is a part of ‘entertainment’ and regards portrayal of puffing on screen as a fundamental right of filmmakers.

True that filmmakers require freedom of expression in the medium of cinema. However, it is also true that the kind of impact cinema has over the minds of people is massive. Many get into this deadly habit thanks to the silver screen. Yes, if portrayal of smoking in a film is a part of some context that demands that it be shown inevitably, then perhaps one may have a second thought. But just to glorify a character,  portrayal of smoking on screen should be done away, specially when it can be shot in another way to convey the same meaning.

Not sure whether he wants to be different or he truly treats cinema as mere entertainment. However, one thing is for sure, that a majority of movie going population in the country loves to take a leaf out of what they saw on screen and in that perspective, the azadi on smoking on screen given by Azad doesnt seem to convince.