Friday, November 26, 2004
Will Hindus ever rise?
Swapan Dasgupta asks a pertinent questions in
a Pioneer article. As Rajdeep Sardesai had noted in an article in NDTV website, even the Savarkar issue and Uma Bharati's arrest did not raise into a mass movement. While the Savarkar issue deserved nothing less than a nation-wide outcry against the highly irresponsible and arrogant action of Mr. Iyer, the Uma Bharati episode smacked of vendetta by the Congress. The fact that both these - especially the former - did not turn into an agitation of the scale of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, and that even the Shankaracharya's arrest - inspite of support from various quarters - did not stir the common man, is disturbing.
It has been my observation that it is increasingly becoming more challenging to get the common Indian out to the streets to protest against an issue. The only folks capable of getting a huge audience seems to be either the religious leaders, or the politicians. And unfortunately, most among these are using the capacity to draw crowds to their vested interests :-(
Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.
Swapan Dasgupta asks a pertinent questions in
a Pioneer article. As Rajdeep Sardesai had noted in an article in NDTV website, even the Savarkar issue and Uma Bharati's arrest did not raise into a mass movement. While the Savarkar issue deserved nothing less than a nation-wide outcry against the highly irresponsible and arrogant action of Mr. Iyer, the Uma Bharati episode smacked of vendetta by the Congress. The fact that both these - especially the former - did not turn into an agitation of the scale of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, and that even the Shankaracharya's arrest - inspite of support from various quarters - did not stir the common man, is disturbing.
It has been my observation that it is increasingly becoming more challenging to get the common Indian out to the streets to protest against an issue. The only folks capable of getting a huge audience seems to be either the religious leaders, or the politicians. And unfortunately, most among these are using the capacity to draw crowds to their vested interests :-(
Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Shankaracharya's arrest
Amid all the heated discussions, political opportunism and pseudo-secular arguments, BJP's RS MP, Balbir Punj has written an informative article in IE. I'm increasingly becoming a big fan of this person. May his tribe increase. Would be interested in seeing what kind of contribution the think tank is doing in helping BJP's strategies!
A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
Amid all the heated discussions, political opportunism and pseudo-secular arguments, BJP's RS MP, Balbir Punj has written an informative article in IE. I'm increasingly becoming a big fan of this person. May his tribe increase. Would be interested in seeing what kind of contribution the think tank is doing in helping BJP's strategies!
A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
The beauty business
The incident in Jammu where a Miss Jammu was lured into porn industry must make us realise the fallacy of having these beauty contests in the Indian society. My feeling is that the society is still very immature for these kind of contests.
I guess it was 1996 when Amitabh Bacchan organised the Miss World contest in B'lore amid huge protests from women activists and the Hindu rightists. (Dont miss out this pic of that protest!) My father predicted at that time itself that popularity of such contests will encourage the sleaze industry to thrive in the name of beauty contests, fashion shows, et al. This case just validates the fear. I hope the "liberal" media and intelligentsia take note of this.
42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
The incident in Jammu where a Miss Jammu was lured into porn industry must make us realise the fallacy of having these beauty contests in the Indian society. My feeling is that the society is still very immature for these kind of contests.
I guess it was 1996 when Amitabh Bacchan organised the Miss World contest in B'lore amid huge protests from women activists and the Hindu rightists. (Dont miss out this pic of that protest!) My father predicted at that time itself that popularity of such contests will encourage the sleaze industry to thrive in the name of beauty contests, fashion shows, et al. This case just validates the fear. I hope the "liberal" media and intelligentsia take note of this.
42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
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