GUNTHROAT

I saw a very good movie ‘The American President’ recently in TV. It is not a political drama, but a romantic comedy featuring Michael Douglas (my dear friends would definitely remember him in basic instinct). The movie ends with a captivating speech by Douglas which turns the tide in favour of him in the story. The content of the speech was very interesting. He in the speech defends his girl friend who is under fire from opposition party for her act of burning the American flag 13 years ago. He says the idea of America does not reside on a flag but on the concepts of liberty, freedom and democracy which it upholds Liberty which gives the citizens to burn the flag and consider national anthem as just another song.
On Friday there were reports on national news channels about Shashi Tharoor (former UN undersecretary) disrespecting national anthem by interrupting it. He reportedly took the microphone and asked the audience to keep the right hand on the left chest when they sung national anthem (the American way) contrary to the ‘’lawful’’ way of standing in attention practised so far in India. A PIL has been filed against Mr Tharoor by an ‘informed patriot’’ asking the court to punish Mr Tharoor.
There are two aspects to the issue. One being whether there is any guideline given in the constitution on the posture of a civilian when singing national anthem. The second, whether any law which demands the citizens to respect some symbols and songs (even if I don’t like the tune of the anthem or the colour combination of the flag I am forced to respect or love it) in tune with the spirit of our constitution which assures liberty and freedom of speech and expression (without harming the tranquillity of the society). So if somebody dictates someone as distinguished and erudite as Mr Tharoor not only to respect the anthem but to respect it in a particular way (as imagined or conceived by him) it questions the very fundamentals on which our nation was built. The same issue comes up again in the singing of Vande Mataram (our national song). Vande Mataram hails India (bharath mata) as God. Now Muslim community does not accept anything other than Allah as God and are not ready to worship anyone else (keeping up with their stringent monotheistic doctrine). So they have serious reservations about singing Vande Mataram. Now we can’t question their right not to sing or respect a song. Nor can we force them to sing vande mataram.
I remember during my school days my PT teacher(an ex army personnel) asking me to keep the shoes (or feet) in V position, chest inflated (though I didn’t have much to inflate) and head held high when national anthem is being sung. So I used to look at my feet (whether it remained a V and not U or T) throughout the recital in assembly. It’s an army practice to stand in attention during national anthem and salute in a particular way which we inherited from the British. No one in this country has the right to tell me the way in which I should stand when national anthem is being sung (the way I should respect it). Whether I should prostrate, stand on my knees, stand at ease during the anthem is entirely up to me.
It is also worthwhile to note the way in which movies deliver an overtly jingoistic representation of respect for national anthem. Two Tamil movies stand apart in this. It is funny that the same Tamils whose persistent impudence towards national symbols prompting the hasty enactment of the earlier version of Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act,1971(prohibiting desecration of or insult to the country's national symbols, including the flag, constitution, and anthem.) by state legislature of Madras take a completely different stand now. One is the famous scene in Roja where Aravind Swamy uses his body to put down the fire on the flag burned by terrorists. I remember enjoying the scene then (especially because of the fantastic background score), but later laughing at the sheer foolishness of a person who believes a nation’s dignity lies in a piece of cloth (or its desecration would harm the country). The second movie has an even preposterous scene. I don’t remember the name of the movie. The hero Sharathkumar (sabse bada budda) is a police officer. He is standing in attention during the recital of national anthem. Suddenly villains come and drop his sister laden with explosives on ground. He does not move (as he respects the country). The villains finally losing patience blasts her and goes away. He finishes his song and runs towards his sister who by now is just ash. I am shocked by the sheer frivolity with which movies handle the concept of nationalism and patriotism. They tend to give the message that the person who won’t breathe (to be most idle) during a patriotic song (national anthem) loves the nation more than the numerous social activists who fight for the rights of citizens in this country. I would seriously recommend the removal of all the acts and subsequent amendments asking the citizens to fake respect towards nation.

Last week when I was coming back from the city with my father I witnessed a big procession in front of Secretariat. It was a procession organized against Israel for their assault on Gaza and against Indian government for their diplomatic ties with Israel. The protest march was organized by the student’s wing of the communist party here (a bunch of people who derives a strange pleasure in vandalism). Their demand, Israel should stop their attacks on Gaza strip (if they are listening) and India should snap the diplomatic ties with Israel. The newspapers from the day of the assault in Gaza are flooding with editorials condemning Israel’s actions. Some of them giving a strange one-sided view of the whole issue of middle east crisis (maintaining a strange silence about the heroic defence of Israel amongst Arab nations). But my topic is not the Middle East conflict as such. My topic is the double standards that the Marxist party and their cohorts are showing in reacting to tragedies. My regular readers are as I know least interested in politics but I request them to read this because this issue is very close to my heart.

I am not a fanatic. Neither is I a proponent of Hindutva theory. I believe Muslims are part of Indian Diaspora and they are indispensable to the overall prosperity of the nation. But I hate people who pamper them, those who in the name of uplifting them mislead them. The main culprit in this respect is CPM (as a matter of fact the state in which the condition of Muslims is worst in India is not Gujarat or UP, it is West Bengal where CPM has been ruling for 30 years). Whenever they bring in issues like Iran, Iraq or Palestine to the forefront of our society they forget serious issues like development and better job opportunities for the largest minority of the country.

Let me take the issues one by one. As we all know Iran is a country which has consistently supported Pakistan in Kashmir issue in world stages. What moral obligation does India have in supporting them? If it is strategic concern, India should be more worried than US in case Iran becomes a nuclear power.

The stand of CPM in Iraq issue is the most ludicrous one. They recently named a junction near my college ‘Shaheed Saddam Hussein junction’’ comfortably forgetting the 80000 Iraqi communists who were killed by Saddam (at the behest of CIA). How abominable it is to have a junction named after a tyrant amongst Mahatma Gandhi road and Azad road. They make a travesty of truth when they accuse only US for the stalemate in Iraq when they know very well that Saddam is equally responsible for all the bloodshed.

Then comes the funniest part of it all. The two gospels of communist parties across the world
1. Thou shall only condemn those who kill foreigners and keep silent about those who kill his subjects
2. Thou shall turn a blind eye on the crimes of the poor and speak aloud on the crimes of rich (special exemption for Faris Aboobaker and Santiago Martin who are party sympathisers) because Lord Marx have told only the Bourgeoisie can commit sin and the proletariat is always righteous.

CPM always condemns those imperialists who kill poor natives in their pursuit for power (with rare exceptions like the Chinese in Tibet and Russians in Afghanistan). Imperialism is bad and it should be condemned but what about tyrants who kill their own subjects (whom they have a moral obligation to protect). Why CPM does not speak out against the worst tyrants of last century like

Stalin (who killed around 4 million people and another 6 million as a result of famines caused due to collective farms which the party still claims is a one way ticket to prosperity). Thus making him worse than Hitler

Mao who killed more than Stalin and that too for keeping himself in power (not for ideology) in the name of Cultural Revolution. It should also be noted that he desecrated thousands of temples (in Tibet) and mosques (in Xinjiang). For all those who think CPM is committed to Babri Masjid issue please refer-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution_-_China#Destruction_of_antiques.2C_historical_sites_and_culture


Then there are the lesser known tyrants in Darfur (where Arab militia with government forces kills 2 lakh people annually, the most heinous genocide in recent times which China covertly supports by providing arms with an eye on Sudan’s rich oil reserves) are comfortably forgotten with an eye on vote bank. Are those dying in Africa not human beings? The answer is no for CPM because they are not killed by Americans. Innocents die only when Americans (the rich ones) or their friends kill. When Chinese or Russians or Land mafia in nandigram fire at human beings, they are killing terrorists or extremists.

Two interesting thoughts to end the topic
Israel provides the most sophisticated missiles and radars to India (better than those given to Pakistan by China) which helps guard our nation. Israel helped us setup the external intelligence agency RAW as answer to ISI which stopped a lot of terrorists attacks in India and engineered the Bangladesh war to our advantage. So India in no way can snap ties with Israel.

I did not see a single communist party march against Pakistan after 26/11. Is the blood of an Indian not precious?

To end this let me quote Obama the president elect of US when he was in Israel last year ‘’if somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I am going to do everything in my power to stop that, I would expect the Israelis to do the same thing’’.

It has been more than 1 month since my last blog. I don’t know why I took such a long gap. Anyway nothing new has happened since the last blog except for some mundane days added to my purposeless life. But in the mean time I had the opportunity to visit a lot of temples. It started with the trip to thirupathi and tiruthani in the end of November. I tonsured my head in thirupathi (I didnt have a wish. I just asked to Him to give me something to feel safe about my future). I came back to Trivandrum in ‘Garib Rath with Rs 25 in my pocket’ (the worst part is though every compartment is air-conditioned you have to pay 30 bucks for a blanket. As I did not have that much money I was shivering from Bangalore to Trivandrum). Back in Trivandrum I went to Sabarimala. The next week I went to Bangalore to write JMET. The exam was very easy which means you think you have a chance but you forget that everybody thinks like you. Back in Trivandrum I took a trip to Thanjavur. I saw a lot of new places like Srirangam and thanjavur (two of the best works of human hand). I also went to Palani, Madurai and Thiruchendur. I really expected a good rank for JMET as every projected cutoffs indicated so but when the rank came it was a dismal 1569. One week later CAT results came. As expected it was bad (93 percentile). But seriously speaking I am not sad. The one reason for that is my father. He didn’t complain or scold me (I had a consternation about that). Thanks to him I am ok now. Thanks for Lakshman as well for being there and reassuring me that situation will improve (like the good old times). Anyway nothing much to write about. My routine is boring with torrentz and philosophy (my new craze). Don’t know when the manna will fall from heaven (hope I will be around when it falls)

PS: the word ‘hope’ as I discover now is the last refuge of losers like me

I am Back