Day in and day out you hear the congress party speak of a secular India. They accuse the BJP of being divided on communal lines and falsely believe that they alone represent a bright secular India.Its so tiring and irritating that one wishes that the Congress shuts up and the left speaks sense for a change. The english news channels on their part are so biased against the BJP that they ought to call themselves the Congress media representatives. The influences of the electronic media has been so pronounced that a majority of young educated Indians have considered it a fad to tell that they are anti-BJP because the party has the blood of Godhra in its hands. For heavens sake people take a long look back and move on.
The congress does not in any sense of the word qualify to be called secular.At best its pseudo secular. Anti-Hindu in its projection but at heart its a party that still counts the largest number of upper caste Hindu MPs than any other party.The Congress has been at power for 30 odd years.It has lead to dynasty politics in a modern democracy and definitely should be blamed most for all the politician enforced ills on the country.Lets look back here,Shall we?
1.If BJP is accused of Godhra then Congress of the anti-Sikh riots following Indira’s assassination.Definitely all the people who claim who do not want to live under the PMship of a man who sponsored a state driven progrom against the muslims, you would not consider living under the rule of a party which actively supported the butchering of hundreds of Sikhs in the national capital because its party leader had been assassinated by members belonging to the community.Add to it the fact that Bindranwale had been incubated by Indira and the Golden temple ransacked by her too, you get a very gory picture.Now assuming that somehow the bloodbath of Godhra stinks more than that of the unfortunate sikhs’ of Delhi lets dig up another worm.
2. When the demolition of the Babri Masjid did happen it was Congress at the helm of power.P.V.Narasimha Rao chose to keep mum while that incident happened.He neither tried to curtail the large number of karsevaks who piled up at that site nor did he take any substantial punitive action following the demolition.Infact he did not even curtail the large scale rioting that followed.Now assuming that Godhra is far more significant than the riots and demolition of Babri masjid let’s look at the issue from a different perspective,
3.Congress does not want to hang Afzal Guru convicted of terrorist acts against the nation because he belongs to a minority community, Congress went ahead with the reservation from Arjun Singh and fought for inclusion of creamy layer for votes, Congress did not stop the building of the Sethu because it claimed Rama did not exist in the court before all hell broke loose.It did not even want to consider an alternate route more eco-friendly because, again its fashionable to give those anti-Hindu commends.Congress vehemently opposes uniform civil code.Why? because we all agree manu neeti is degrading to women and the so called lower caste, the concept of 3 wives and talaaq contributes to the up liftment of the nation.Congress does not dare to interfere with the madrasaas for obvious reasons. Congress watched mum when Singur happened, It did not on high moral grounds for the common man put its foot down like it did for the 123 agreement.Congress miserably failed to prevent terrorist attacks in the country, Led to a total catastrophic intelligence.Failed to push Pakistan,control Nepal and curtail SriLanka’s no witness genocide against its civilians.Its also the party which after even repeated warnings let the huge catastrophe of the Bhopal tragedy happen.Going a long way back its also the party that should be blamed to a significant extent along with the British and Jinnah for the post partition riots and much later for the elimination of the Kashmiri Pandits.Ironically Congress is also the party that spoke of compulsory sterilisation of the muslims, supported a presidential candidate who believes in spirits and speaks of a Nazi kind genetic pooling,Its the party that has repeatedly not seen any Indian good enough to be the PM for the past 10 years.Its also the party that gave us our only emergency.May be this does not mount to the atrocity of Godhra. Lets then look at economy shall we?
4.While there has been a global melt down Chidambaram should take a substantial amount of the blame.Waiver of loans, agressive pushing for credit ,American style opening the markets for credit card companies,caste based sanctioning of loans played havoc in the market.I am not even that well versed in economy. You might want to read an article from Gurumurthy in that regard. He of course belongs to the RSS in a sense, the communal monster but then he is also the character potrayed by Madhavan in Guru, that definitely must lend some credibility to the people who believe in all the media hype?
What then makes a party culpable? Only Godhra, explicit communal speeches? being chastised for wearing saffron colors when other communities display their religious identity. If you do argue that Congress’ faults are long gone past then morally you are incorrect in your stance against the BJP for Godhra or Kandhamal.Blood is always blood and the one thats dried more mostly stinks the most and is difficult to wash off.If you do believe that a BJP in power would lead to a state sponsored genocide then a) its humanely impossible due to the sheer numbers on each side it would take to fight b)international pressure would prevent that c) public anger would halt that. When you are confident enough that Congress would not repeat its blunders its unlikely BJP would repeat its biggest blunder till date-Godhra.
Surely it would not be al rite to make sense of a party that believes fielding a PM candidate is a sense of impudence,thats been throwing overtures to jaya and DMK, Maya and SP at the same time, that has come out and said 30% of Philibit is not voting for Varun and thats a big victory for them , as if BJP did not work that arithematic out.
The BJP should realise its biggest strength is that its anti-Congress. It should not be non inclusive,should mend its way and makes sure a Godhra or a Kandhamal never repeats again.
All that aside I am not canvassing for the Congress or the BJP. All that I am saying is that there has been too much of Godhra baiting. I do condemn the Godhra carnage in as vehement a manner as possible. But Godhra should not be Congress’ and that obsolete Left’s panacea for all other shortcomings. Surely looking back and assessing on a scale of political carnage the Congress would inch closer to the red mark by a margin much higher than the BJP’s? Its time we saw that and moved on.
Archive for May, 2009
Stop the communal rhetoric!
It was comeupance at the Stamford Bridge
Now with all the drama that the last of the UEFA semifinals provided I have learnt a valuable lesson- do not switch off a match before its over. By the time the ninety minutes were up and the stoppage time was added I had lost hope. It was like relivening the nightmare. It had been excruciatingly frustrating to see Barcelona stopped by a stubborn Chelsea defense,it had hurt me to see Barca pass like dogs literally without being able to break the Chelsea defense wall,it was repelling to see the huge Chelsea players almost like mountains tower over the dimunitive barca players and most of all as a football fan it stung to not see the beautiful game win. It brought back memories of Barca imploding before and the often touted taunt that the premier league football is the best.I actually agree the EPL as a whole is the best but do their top teams play the best football? I disagree. By the end at ninety minutes, I had been reduced to tears and decided to switch off the match in shear despair.
I remember having an argument with a friend of mine when Argentina lost to Germany the last world cup. In many ways the games were similar but the results reversed.Of course the Germans played a way better brand of football than Chelsea did and Argentina are not nimble pushovers but somewhere down the line the argument remained the same.What makes great teams -Great results or a splendid and mesmerising game?I was somewhat brusquely told off that the concept of beautiful game or joga bonita does not exist. Whats the use if you cant win matches? Now, this argument is absolutely valid.And thats why as football fans you must have ached to see Barcelona win.
Barcelona have been nothing short of phenomenal,there is something ethereal about that team.With their brand of breathtaking football,them contributing to UNICEF,their youth programmes and clinics in third world countries and their astounding belief in playing the game their way under all circumstances and Messi in their ranks,they deserve the title of the best team in the world.They stand in sharp contrast to an unimaginative Chelsea team.The thing is, it was sad enough that Chelsea won Liverpool and had they repeated it against Barca it would have been a horrifying shame.
You cant and should not win matches with eightmen within forty meters of your goal post.And for all their cries of penalties not being allowed I really thought they were none except the Pique handball.Drogba dived the first time and fouled as he came into the box. The second case of a shirt pulling hardly earns penalties these days.And honestly Drogba dived so much that it was disgusting.The refree saw that and that went against him.As for Eto’ its a bit controversial.While his arm was high up in he air,his back was turned away from the ball. When your back is turned away if i am not wrong, you are not given a penalty.This coupled with the fact that the match was minutes from the finish and a final berth was at stake ,the refree probably froze on the penalty.And finally coming to Pique, either the ref did not see it or thought Malouda kicked the ball on to Pique’s arm, either way it was the strongest chance of a penaly for Chelsea. However one must remember that a penalty for Henry was disallowed and many ways it was the stongest case in the two games. So in a sense the teams are even. I am not absolving the refree off some shoddy work, that he sent Abidal off when Anelka fell of his own accord was another instance of bad refreeing.But what I am telling is that Chelsea were sore losers.They had gone to town about decisions having to be accepted after the first leg.It was almost humorous to see Ballack madly chasing the refree.One could understand the frustrations and in a sadistic way I liked the fact that the goal had come irrepairably in the injury time.And that too a fantastic goal one that would have sailed wide 7 times out of ten from Iniesta.
You see Iniesta according to me is the keystone that holds Barca. Xavi is the fountain of creativity only when Iniesta is there, Its only with Iniesta’s passing that Messi feeds off him and Xavi, its only then that there is that telepathic connection between the Barca strikers and midfielders.It was divine justice.The man who came off Barca’s youth programme,who neither has the potency of a Henry or the magic of Messi but one who epitomizes Barca’s game of beautiful football with his mesmerizing passing and staunch belief in its effectiveness had to score the golden goal.A better candidate at a better moment could not have been orchestred.
It was sad to see the biased commentary of Sky Sports and its post match analysis was shameful. I have long believed that there is almost a conspiracy by ESPN,Star Sports,Ten and Sky against La Liga and Barca in particular.Now Guus thats way more on target than the one you came up with!Nothing explains why Aston Wiga Vs Bolton would be telecast but not Barca vs Bayern. The worst was when I saw no La liga matches on air while deferred telecast of Japan vs S.Korea in baseball was being aired while Barca took on Lyon.That the most widely viewed sports network in the world would not telecast the best team with one of the best players of all times is nothing short of blasphemy.Its outrageous as a fan and a sport enthusiast and in many ways undermines the very terminology of sports.
For all of english clubs’ pace,power and deftness it does not measure upto the beauty that Barca dishes out. Its only fair that the team that payed football won.However Barca needs to take stock of its defense, Alves in particular and improve on set pieces.But for now we shall bask in the glory of divine comeupance…
