adarsh bhat’s blog

I’ll let the video do the talking. Turn your volume up.

It is always important to get the other party’s viewpoint. So, here’s reaction from the media in Pakistan about the recent Mumbai attacks (in Urdu mixed with English). I can’t really defend India against all the accusations made. But I don’t dare call this unbiased coverage either. Six videos will play one after the other below, covering the entire show.

Thanks to Mekin for sharing the link.

mumbai, terrorism

In my post about the recent terrorist attacks on Mumbai, I wrote that India’s measures to counter the threat of terrorism will pose a challenge to the civil rights of citizens of India. I would like to elaborate on that in this post.

The urban youth of India have been shocked by the audacity demonstrated by the terrorists in the Mumbai attacks. There is wide spread disapproval of the Indian government over its inability to prevent such attacks. These same people also believe that India should take the same path America did post 9/11. The basis of this argument is that America has seen no large foreign terrorist attacks on US soil since 9/11 and this is because of the steps taken by the Bush administration; hence this is a method that works, and we should do the same. To these arguments, my response is that we have more information available about the US example that than little misleading factoid. We should do our best to learn from the mistakes that the US made, and not blindly make the same mistakes all over again.

The first casualties in the US efforts were not terrorists, but the freedom and the civil rights of ordinary citizens of America. In a surge of patriotism, not unlike what we feel today, the representatives of the people voted for the PATRIOT act in a hurry without any real debate. There have been similar controversial laws in India in the past to fight terrorism — TADA comes to mind immediately. The opposition has already made a demand for stricter laws in India, so there is the real danger of putting too much power in to the hands of the government, at the expense of the civil rights, and even human rights, of the ordinary citizen.

In the name of strengthening laws, empowering the police department, and reducing bureaucracy, they may make it easier to arrest and detain people on a whim while bypassing the usual procedures of the law. There may be gag orders on the press. They make make torture of arrested terror suspects under detention legal. They may award the death sentence with more ease. More likely than not, they may violate the privacy of the citizens. If it really got down to it, at least in practice if not on paper, there may be special background checks for Muslim candidates for jobs and college admissions.

Here is a recent example of such occurrences in India. Such incidents will happen more often, and may even become “legal”.

On the surface these may seem like acceptable trade-offs to some people. But we have to remember that real terrorists form a minuscule fraction of the population, but the laws are going to affect everyone. Before any such laws are passed, we need to take time and debate their pros and cons thoroughly. We cannot rush through them in a hurry, in a bid to imitate America, only later to realize what we have lost, and fight for our rights at the end, again like America.

It is often argued that things like privacy aren’t very important in India. There are no explicit provisions in the constitution for the right to privacy either. But India has ratified a number of international treaties and agreements, and is bound by international law to protect civil rights of her citizens. Also it is not correct to take away peoples’ rights just because they don’t know they are entitled to it.

Recently, when sexual minority groups in India demanded their rights in the courts, the government — thanks to ex-home minister Shivraj Patil — took the stand that they did not deserve to have those rights. Given that the government has demonstrated that it is keen on denying basic rights to people, it should come as no surprise if they actually try to do everything that I have described. We can’t let them go scissor-happy on our rights. And if they try, we must fight them with every ounce of strength left.

P.S. A few weeks back, I had written criticizing a blog that had some strong pro-hindutva (and anti-government) writings. It turns out that after the Mumbai attacks, that site has been taken down. If it is indeed true that the government has ordered this site to be taken down, as some websites have suggested, then this is clearly a violation of the freedom of speech. This is unconstitutional, and needs to be reversed.

EDIT (Dec 01 2008): It turns out that the site was down due to increased load and is now being hosted at a temporary new location. But I have to confess that it was a good story.

mumbai, politics, terrorism

“If a scorpion stings you, you don’t try to reform it. You kill it.”

My friend and I were having an IM conversation a few minutes ago about how best to tackle the terror threat that India is facing. And that’s when he said those words. The terrorists had to die.

Most Indians have reacted in a similar way to the terrorist attack in Mumbai that they have been watching non-stop on their television screens for more than two days now. Before I start, I would like to say that I do not sympathize with the actions of these terrorists. But before we finalize an action plan, we need to sit back, relax, may be have a drink or two, and then think deeply about all the consequences of our next steps.

If a scorpion stings you, all you have to do is make sure that the scorpion does not sting you again. Killing it will work, no doubt. But there may be other solutions out there. Yes, you have a right to defend yourself. That’s exactly what the scorpion was perhaps doing.

I may sound a little cold and objective here. But we need to see the light of reason. As a country, our target should be, not to kill all terrorists, but to make sure that any more Indians do not fall prey to terror attacks. Failing that, we need to make sure that as few people as possible die in terror attacks. If we agree that this is our goal, then going for an all out war will take us further away from it. We will have killed more of them, and they will have killed more of us. Not doing anything drastic does seem cowardly and unpatriotic at this moment, but it might actually turn out to be more beneficial in the long run.

mumbai, terrorism

It was shocking to see television footage of the unpleasant events that took place in Mumbai yesterday. Being thousands of miles away, these were merely events happening somewhere else, to someone else. But I must confess that it did hurt a little bit. I felt a connection to these strangers whom I might never meet. They felt like my own — my countrymen. Like the rest of the people in India yesterday, I spent all day glued to news channels. I cringed a little bit when I saw videos of really young men driving through a crowd of bystanders and opening fire on them. Like everyone else, I lost a little more faith, felt more a little more insecure.

As unfortunate as this event was, I fear the worst is yet to come. I am not predicting future attacks, or claiming that the terrorists have won. What I am afraid of has nothing to do with terrorists. It has do with our reaction to this event.

What shall we do now?

I guess not doing anything is pretty much out of the question. Everyone is really angry. The same citizens who were hungry for information about the attacks, are now going to be hungry for action. There shall be cries for blood. In fact, there already are. The blogosphere is rife with war cries — people demanding that something be done, people claiming to do something themselves if their leaders do not, people seeking to exact vengeance. Even before the people did so, the media did it for them. What was initially called “Terror attacks on Mumbai” soon got painted, quite inexplicably, as “War on Mumbai.” Now this is not really a war in any sense of the word. But the implication is that there is going to be retaliation – in kind – and that the use of force is now warranted on obvious targets who have been charged guilty without trial. The role of the media is to report facts, and perhaps reflect public opinion. But what we see here is the media forming public opinion.

So far, the international media has maintained the official position that this is an internal attack. India has been quick to point fingers at Pakistan, the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Taliban, the Al Qaeda… you name it. The evidence is flimsy. But for the moment, let us agree that India is right. What do we do about it? People point out what America did after 9/11, and say that perhaps we should do the same. But there is a difference here. America is a super power, and the world watches in silence when they lash out blindly in anger. That is not going to work the same way in India’s case. Even so, what do we do? Attack Pakistan and take out the terrorist training camps? Join America in Afghanistan? How about Iraq? Clearly none of these is a viable option.

India is not in a sitation to take any huge step against a faceless enemy. Still the government can’t appear to be doing nothing. So what they will do is clamp down on the country — on us. What they will do is take away our rights. This is going to be a BIG challenge to civil rights in the country. This is when the terrorists will really have won.

You and I will gladly give away some of our rights for better security of our countrymen. But then what we really will be doing is chipping away at the very foundation of our democracy.

This is not my imagination. This is already happening. Even as the National Security Guard commandos were fighting terrorists in the hotels of Mumbai, opposition chief Lal Krishna Advani felt no shame in seizing the opportunity to gain political advantage and to take a few cheap shots at the government. He made a demand to have stronger laws. It was as if we had done everything else in our power and it was only because of this weak law that the terrorists were able to get away with this.

India is still a budding democracy, and notions of civil rights have not yet been firmly rooted in the minds of the people. What we need now is stronger enforcement of peoples rights, not laws that take rights away from people.

I hope and pray that all people in India would listen to the voice of caution, sleep over the matter and then, in the morning, think calmly about how best to handle the situation. India’s strength is in her democracy. We are not terrorists, and must not become terrorists. We must play our strengths. Let peace prevail.

mumbai, terrorism

A black man in the White house. Sounds almost poetic.

If you asked the people of America even a week ago if they thought Barack Obama would win the presidential election, you would get two kinds of response. There would be those that said America was not ready to have a black man as her president. Then there would be those who would scream “Yes We Can” at the top of their voices, simultaneously trying to suppress that little nagging doubt at the back of their heads that it may not actually happen.

And yet the impossible happened.

The city of Chicago erupted in to a celebration that hasn’t worn off after days. The sheer size of the crowd at Obama’s election night party at Grant Park was testament to this. Crowds of this size were last seen here, ironically enough, when the Pope visited Chicago in 1979. In this crowd there were blacks, whites, hispanics, asians, gay men and women… you name it. And they all hugged each other and they all wept tears of joy — Jesse Jackson and Oprah among them — that the impossible had happened. That night, the little nagging doubt died away.

The party was still on the next day at Barack Obama’s neighbourhood, Hyde park, where restaurants were offering free breakfast to everyone. At the Dominick’s grocery store at downtown Chicago the clerk behind the counter had found a new way of greeting customers: “Did you vote for Obama?” promptly followed by a warm wide grin.

It is not just people in America. People the world over are united in celebration that Barack Obama is going to be the next president of the United States. No one really knows why. They just know it.

A lot of people say this could have happened only in America. I believe there is a reason why. America is uniquely positioned as a democracy made of immigrants, where you can be Polish-American or African-American and still be considered patriotic. In any other nation where the native population is a majority, this would be a hard sell. Which is why, we may not see a Sikh prime minister in London soon; or for that matter an Italian woman prime minister in India.

Barack Obama’s victory is nothing less than extraordinary.

Update (19 Nov ‘08): The Times of India ran a piece today that talks about why we won’t have an Indian Obama soon.

politics

Barack Obama

You kicked ass. Yes you did.

Have you seen this blog called Offstumped by one Yossarin? It claims to be a blog “for all things right of centre.”

When I came across this blog for the first time a few months ago, I was thrilled. Here was a blog that was written by an ordinary citizen. It talked about issues. It had a good audience: each post had at least 50 comments. How many Indian political blogs can we find which can boast of that?

But as I followed the posts on this blog, it became apparent to me that this person really means it when he calls himself conservative. Here are some recent blog post titles from this blog:

• Jamia Millia University should be prosecuted
• Shame on you Oscar Fernandes
• Indian Mujahideen & CounterCurrents – Potential nexus
• War on Terror – Spotlight on Chicago’s Indian Muslims
• War on Terror – America Walks while India Talks
• War on Terror – Time for Pre-emption

Big head lines may get more clicks. But really this blog is doing more harm than good.

Far from being merely “right of centre,” the content in this blog is really to the extreme right. There is a clear religious bias that becomes obvious to anyone who cares to read a post or two. There have been many posts made about terrorism, and the connection to Islam is ever present. However nothing has been said about the recent activities of the Bajrang Dal, except this:

With mischevious comparisons being drawn between the Bajrang Dal and SIMI and absurd demands for banning Bajrang Dal if the Congress and its minions think they can shift the public debate away from the War on Terror then they are in for a huge disappointment.

By now, the political affiliations of this blog must be plainly obvious. However in the ‘About’ section, they claim not to be affiliated with any party.

The author also assumes he is some sort of modern day investigative journalist. Of course he requires no evidence whatsoever and makes allegations as he pleases. For instance, he makes one of his stupid-ass baseless claims here, and in the very next post does a complete U-turn. Makes me laugh! But it also makes me very angry. You make a huge accusation on someone, and all your faithful comment writers agree. The next day you contradict yourself, but don’t find the need to apologize or add corrections to your previous post. This is hugely irresponsible and leaves the site with absolutely no credibility.

I would really like to see some liberal political blogs from India out there. Do you know of any?

politics

I left Chicago Midway airport last evening and landed at the San Francisco airport late last night. The journey was eventful. They say that’s never a good thing when it comes to air travel. But to be honest, it was a good mix of entertainment and delays.

I had no shortage of people to pick up a conversation with… the large African American woman in the airport shuttle at Chicago who was a diversity manager in the hospitality industry and who hated her dog. Or my neighbour on the flight – the pretty lady who had been to India before and suggested various Indian restaurants to me at San Francisco. Or the elderly couple (on the shuttle at SFO) who were on their way back from Alaska and could not stop talking about their exciting adventure.

The SouthWest flight was on time, but due to a technical snag they had to move us to another plane after sitting in one for over 45 minutes. Any inconvenience caused was more than made up for by the witty air hostess, whose announcement was no less than a stand-up comedy show.

I reached Vinay’s place quite late at night, and it was such a pleasure to meet Vinay and Lindsey — Vinay after almost two years, and Lindsey for the first time! We talked way into the night catching up on gossip, until Lindsey announced it was time for bed. Or we would never have stopped!

Lots of things planned for the first day! I’ll try to update twitter as much as possible. Keep smiling.

San Francisco, travel

Summer at Chicago has been so much fun that I hardly found time to post anything. I haven’t been entirely off the radar: if you have been following me on facebook or orkut, you have definitely seen a lot of pictures.

I’m taking a break from the warm Chicago summer to visit my friend Vinay in the cooler San Francisco. He has been insisting for a while now that I visit him. So I’m going to fly over and spend a week at his place. I’m sure that’s going to be even more fun!