BHAMY V. SHENOY writes: The attacks on two cities, Bangalore and Ahmedabad, in the space of two days, July 25 and July 26, is comparable to 9/11, if not in scale, at least in the manner in which they have pierced the conscience of an entire nation.
How should “We the People” react?
Should we follow in the footsteps of our political parties and leaders who have already begun playing their favourite sport of pointing fingers at each other, or at their chosen targets? Or should we join hands and stick together to show the fear-mongers that nothing can drive a wedge between one Indian and another?
I believe we should desist from the unfortunate example of “an eye for an eye” set by President George W. Bush. We should, instead, follow the high ideals of Mahatma Gandhi in trying to find a solution to a global problem.
By trying to take revenge on a supposed enemy, Bush has unleashed thousands of Osama bin Ladens whereas by adapting the path of satyagraha and fasting to do introspection, the Mahatma succeeded in stopping the killings during Partition.
What would Gandhiji have done today had he been alive? He would have urged all of us to go on a fast, to show our solidarity and to do introspection rather than find faults with groups or individuals.
That is precisely what we should do to prevent more cities from being added to the list of Bangalore, Bombay, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur….
By finding faults with our brothers and sisters, most of whom are also victims of the terrorism that is laid at their door, and many have whom have been led to terrorism by our acts of omission and commission, we will not even begin to solve the problem.
We will only be helping trigger a chain reaction, an endless spiral of more killings as we have seen in Indonesia, Britain, Spain, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan since 9/11.
So, why don’t we do what the Mahatma would have done?
Why don’t we embark on a symbolic fast on Independence Day, August 15, from 8 am to 8 pm?
Let us all—Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, everybody—let us all join hands, publicly and privately, and not partake of food and water for 12 hours on that day.
Let us send a strong message and an even stronger image to future terrorists that their cowardice doesn’t scare us, that their dastardly designs will not work.
Let us not follow leaders like Stalin, Hitler and Mao who used terror to gain power. Let us follow Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela who used the lesson of love taught by all the religions to put it down.
Let’s go hungry on August 15 to starve the terrorists of their oxygen.
Also read: CHURUMURI POLL: Should POTA be brought back?
K. JAVEED NAYEEM: ‘All terror can be traced to injustice, inequality’
D.P. SATISH: ‘Globalisation and terrorism are closely linked’
Sorry for being blunt but get real. Your fasting is not going to make a human being out of a fanatic who believes that killing infidels is a pious act, and is looking forward to bathing in rivers of wine with his 72 virgins.
Gandhi was not able to save the Hindu women of Noakhali being from gang raped in front of their own people.Gandhi was not able to stop the great Calcutta killing of the Hindus.In fact,Gandhian way of protest is way too overrated and it only ‘woked’ against a GOVT that was democratic.It did not and will not work against jehadi scums.As long as there are people who are always ready to find a cause to justfy the thuggery of a partcular perennially grieved comminity,Gandhian protest (i.e ways of bending over) will be useless.Tit for tat,an eye for an eye is the only way.Here’s a news item where the so called aggrieved community blocks highways when one of the suspects belonging to their community is arrested.And we alway hear “the majority of muslims are against terrorism”
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Jaipur_blast_accused_arrested_in_UP/articleshow/3286202.cms
Wonder if Gandhiji’s method is universally applicable. Despite the imperious nature of British rule, they had a conscience. But non violence did not save the Jews against Hitler. If Israel decides to opt for non-violence, it will be exterminated the same day as Ahmadinejad has threatened time and again.
Such suggestions for fasting can come from those who believe in peace. But do the terrorists believe in peace ? It is open secret that they are inspired by their religion, they quote their scriptures and justify it in the name of their holy book. Their objective is converting Dar Ul Harab to Dar Ul Islam. No point in turning a blind eye. To get a drift of the peaceful nature of heir peaceful ideology check this out
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
Following Gandhi’s policies against Islamists, Jehadis can only allow these terrorists to rule the world.
India is full of indiots- assorted Islamists, secularists, elf hating Hindus who are primarily responsible for this mess.
Nehru wrote in “discovery of India’ why average north indian are more rubble rousing, aggressive when compared with average south Indian. It was because of LONG AND OPPRESSIVE ISLAMIC RULE IN THE NORTH.
Make no mistake, people are not going to tolerate these Islamic facism anymore. HINDUS ARE CHANGING CULTURALLY WHICH IS THE SUREST WAY TO HANDLE THESE JEHADIS, ISLAMISTS.
***
The way Godhra accused have been treated by media quite contrary to facts on the ground or legal position is an indication which way country is going.
Here is a group of people, whose bail have been DENIED by local court, High court, Supreme Court of India.
Still, media is portraying it as ‘innocent muslims becoming victims of Modi Govt’ as stated by Muslim NGOs, activists like Teesta Seetalvad.
Do we have a rule of law in India, or anything and everything can be surrendered to media, NGOs for their vested interest?
sir fasting is not the answer to terrorists
we Indians take every things lightly, we got the Independence through Satyagraha, thats good but not de best way.We shud have got it by revolutionary way only and this could have sparked some youth at that time to develop the nation by hook or crook and the things might have been different and also If we had got Independence in 1857 only we could have been like America by now, think how they developed after their war of Independence.
Satyagraha shud be done against who believe in non violence but not against those who believe in violence
Gandhiji was a great leader and I have high respect for him but he has done some small mistakes and baseless partition was one of them, I till today dont know on what basis partition was done ??? May be somebody will answer here…………
The problem with the way we portray Gandhiji and his style of freedom movement is that as it worked against an occupier, it should be universally applicable at any age. While there is merit in the non-violence movement, we should understand that it was directed against British who had enough opposition within their country for colonialism per se, within the Labour party and the educated. Men of letters like Bernard Shaw, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh and Yates strongly opposed British rule in India, and their links to the Labour Party helped to shape the thinking of Atlee government.
If Gandhiji’s methods were directed against the Moghuls who were the occupiers of parts of India before the British, we can imagine what the result would be. Gandhiji’s methods did not work against the muslim thugs who gangraped women and massacred thousands of children for example in Hoshiapur at the time of partition. I have heard gut-wrenching stories of what happened in Hoshiarpur when these muslim thugs started raping Hindu women. My friend a shop keeper in Mysore, a refugee from Hoshiarpur lost his entire family and was made to watch when muslim thigs raped his sisters in fron of him. At first, the Hindus, tried to reason with them, but the rapes intensified and Hindus were painted as soft and mocked. When a few Hindu young men resisted and strung a few muslim thugs on trees, the rapes stopped.
What one is seeing in India and elsewhere is an Islamic fanaticism which has been dormant for so long. Islam I am sorry to say is not a peaceful religion, and time and again it has raised its ugly head. You cannot argue with muslims or reason with them. While they can say or do anything against other religios, a cartoon here (Danish example) and few sentences there ( Rushdie example) are enough reasons to galvanise muslims from Mandimohalla to Iran against the infidels. Very interesting to imagine an encounter between Gandhiji and Bin Laden,and I bet my bottom dollar Bin Laden would laugh Gandhiji off as insane!
I have often discussed the islamic terrorism with well educated muslims, and as a man they have never condemned the 7/7 bombings in London or the 9/11 attack against innocent civilians. They appear as depressing apologists. There is a simple solution which is a wishful thinking. If muslim communities everywhere discourage activities of their young men which lead to terrorism and let the authorities know of such activities the homegrown terrorism will decrease. Terrorists need a base to act and they find them in muslim communities who turn a blind eye or even encourage them as the story before the 7/7 bombing in London reveal.
In the light of the above,what a mere fasting will do to recruitees from Madrassas, Mullahs or even educated funamentalist muslims (which is an oxymoron any way).
Times have changed. Methods must change. Fasting won’t help. Cracking down on terrorists and their support bases are our ONLY option!
why dont we get bombs from the terrorists and bomb ourselves in our own homes? that will spare the good muslim terrorists some trouble.
“Let us all—Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, everybody—let us all join hands, publicly and privately, and not partake of food and water for 12 hours on that day”
Bhamy, you sound very barmy! First, fasting will be seen as an appeasement to those thugs who worship their heroes of 9/11 and 7//7, and will be laughed off as cowardice. Second, including muslims in the above bunch, come on, you seem to assume that there are moderate muslims who will take a stand against Islamic terrorism. How do you think that these terrorists were able to perpetrate their despicable acts? They cannot simply be the green men from planet uranus landed to earth to carry out their activities. They hide in muslim communities, with their friends. Since when a muslim community reported suspicious activities in their midst? Fasting might proved to be good for the bodies of persons concerned and will do nothing to a bunch of fanatics who quote religious sanctions for the terrorist acts, and I am sorry to say that what they say is true in respect of their religion sanctioning these acts.
“Let us follow Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela who used the lesson of love taught by all the religions to put it down”
Nelson Madela was not a pacifist in Gandhi and King’s mould. As an young man he took arms against Afrikans, and only when he realised that the West would not support him and the ANC if they tread the path of violence, did he and ANC change their ways.
Gandhi’s methods were directed against a specific occupier of his country at a specific period. In these instances, we see the ugly head of religion driving a bunch of fanatics indulging in terrorist activities. Gandhi fasts were to draw attention of the world to the colonialism and were directed as a pacifist instrument against British rule. What is the purpose of this fasting? The world knows about the Islamic terrorism and there are so many Islamic terrorist groups that one loses count. We can guess that their support bases are in their local communities.
in India
Every suggestion made here, however well-meaning, only helps the terror mongers.
This is utter nonsense. You must be deluding yourself that once you fast on Aug 15, the Muslims will lay down arms and stop terrorism.
Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King did not win all by themselves. There were already politicians calling for reform on the OTHER SIDE. Once those politicians came to power, they just handed over power. It is not that these politicians changed their minds based on what Gandhi did.
In India’s case, it was Clement Atlee who ran his election campaign on the platform that India would be granted independence. In south Africa’s case, it was Frederick de Clerk who had a similar campaign against apartheid (he was the bete noire of his predecessor who was pro-apartheid) for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize. In USA’s case, it was Lyndon Johnson who aggressively pursued trials in federal courts after all-white juries in state courts let off murderers.
In the case of Muslims, there is no one in a position of power to help you. Besides, Muslims themselves are not so powerful that you need to beg them to help you. Why should Bush beg bin Laden when he can crush them? Bush did the right thing. There has been no terrorist attack on American soil after 9/11.
churumuri, please stick to your standards…
Alice in wonderland….!! LOL
Fasting to change minds of those blood thirsty Islamic radicals? Have we lost our mind?
Gandhi’s approach works with more ‘reasonable’ enemy/opposition, not with these 16th-century throwbacks!
It’s not even 24 hours since the attacks….See how those who are sympathetic to terrorists are reacting here –
http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=49145&n_tit=Gujarath%3A%20Serial%20Blasts%20Rock%20Ahmedabad%20%2D%20Several%20Injured
Unbelievable? You bet!
are you nuts???
We all are, aw. That is why we write here.
I support N. Standard of Churumuri is declining. :(
Dear Friends,
It is almost 100% against my suggestion for various reasons.
First of all let me clarify some points. I am not against punishing the guilty. I fully support more intellegence to collect information on terrorists. We need to do all that. But how can we neutlralize few terrorists?
Can any one suggest what is the best way to neutralize terrorsits who can hit us any where and create maximum chaos?
What do we lose by showing our disgust against the terrorists by fasting? It gives us an opportunity to come together and reflect upon our problems. Do we lose any thing as a result? It does not show that we are coward as claimed by some. In fact it shows our courage and conviction.
Have we tried to find out who is our true enemy here? It is only a tiny minority and by doing what some are suggesting we can run into making a lot more enemies. That is exactly what this tiny minority terrorists wants us to do?
It is easy to diagree with Gandhi and argue that Britshers were more decent enemies, Nelson Mandela was also violent in the beginning (after he became President, did he take revenge on those who put him behind bars? How did he avoid the bloodshed which was predicted after South Africa threw apartheid), we can minimize the achievements of King, etc. But the reality is that these three leaders avoided bloodshed. Please suggest whether we agree with Gandhi or not, how best we can avoid bloodshed? Alreday too many innocents have been killed in India because of terrorists. How can we avoid future terrorism. Please give some concrete suggestions while throwing mine.
BVShenoy: the best way to handle terrorism is to understand who they are, what’s their inspirartion, what are their social, economic, political, religious goals, who support them, how they spread. They are not just few thugs exploding bombs- they have an ideology, goal.
You are asking to show tolerance to intolerance.
Gandhiji’s policies were blatant appeament that actually emboldened jehadis, islamists and created Pakistan. There are so many examples.
Swami Shraddhanad, a top Arya Samaj leader of early 20th century, was killed by Abdul Rashid, a fanatic Muslim in 1920s when Swami was recouping from illness.
Gandhiji was busy with Muslim leaders launching Khilafat movement then. He condemned this incident and said: I am sure, Ali brothers (leaders of Khilafat movement) condemn the same.
Ali brother DID NOT condemn the incident or the perpetrator of the crime. He said:
“Even a Muslim who has killed someone is better than non-muslims, even if that non-Muslim is Gandhi” (this is root cause of problem – notion of religious superiority by a growing section of muslims)
50,000 Muslims rallied proclaiming the killer as “Ghazi” and treating him as “Shaheed”, while Gandhiji tried to save him from British gallows.
This is the Gandhian way and we know its results. Do we want to make same mistakes?
>> How can we avoid future terrorism. Please give some concrete suggestions while throwing mine.
how can we avoid any crime, for that matter? can you please organize fasts against rape, pick-pocketing, counterfeiting, serial-killers, adulteration, bribery, drunken driving, hooch?
and while at that, throw in a fast for people such as you to get some sense.
terrorism is not just a crime, it is a war against the Indian state. how will you fight a war? by eliminating the enemy.
okay, go fast.
@BVS
Nice joke.
Noble thoughts noble indeed. As everybody have mentioned here it is a joke( a bad one at that)
Lets not delude ourselves we are dealing with a shadowy group of assorted scum . Whose only aim is to create chaos, kill and disrupt normal life. Will a fast help no definitely not but it does make good copy. This alone will not do we need to supplement it with robust clandestine action; have a similar shadowy government dirty works department which is capable of eliminating those who can cause harm to innocent lives. Get the intelligence setup right, increase monitoring, surveillence both electronic and human. Information is the key to prevent any untoward incident. It is very important these jihadi groups are infilterated. Learn from the israelis they have been at it even before we learnt to spell jihad.
“Please suggest whether we agree with Gandhi or not, how best we can avoid bloodshed?”
The first part of the question is naive. We can all agree with non-violence
as a philosophy, but will be foolish to apply it to the situation where clusters of Islamic terrorists and suicide bombers wreck havoc on innocent people. Fasting to cure the mind set of bigotted Islamic terrorist is naive to the extreme.
The best way to avoid terrorist bloodshed is to prevent it not by fasting but through a variety of intelligence efforts as many bloggers have suggested.
In the US and in the UK, after 9/11 and 7/7 disasters, the FBI, the MI5 and the Scotland Yard have vastly improved their intelligence gathering including monitoring of people in Islamic communities infiltrating them where possible as these communities act as terrorists’ bases prior to any terrorist incidence. In the UK ,despite the very stringent European Commission ‘s Human Rights laws, many potential terrorist incidents were thus averted because of the above proactive intelligence efforts. There is now Europe -wide intelligence gathering and monitoring and cooperation with US intelligence agencies. Some of these activities impinge on human freedom but their effects are there to see.
India should invest in intelligence gathering and monitoring and not waste time in considering silly ideas like fasting. Gandhian ideals do not apply here.
Comment on the original blog by Mr Shenoy !
I appreciate and respect the idea of sathayagraha !! But not in this situation. This is totally different scenario. A stringent step towards terrorism and ‘tit for tat’ will only work. These people dont any have ideology. So no point in wasting time on starving to fight against them.
Well intentioned, but if there is a mass fast, its purpose cannot be to stop terrorism (as many here seem to think and mock at), but just an occasion when some people who did not give it good thought may start thinking about the source of such problems.
The perpetrators should definitely be caught and punished, but for preventing future incidents, it is empirically obvious that just beefing up security and intelligence or having an Indian CIA will not do. It would be important to not create sections inside our own society who would support such acts – for instance I imagine that many teenagers who lost their families and more in Godhra may well want to take revenge against society.
After a person becomes a terrorist, there is probably little that can be done to redeem him or her. But if as a nation we can go for one or two generations without communal flare-ups, perhaps the cycle of ‘we did this because they did that to us’, will stop.
Looking at the reactions here, it makes me sad that even in the land of Gandhi, there are no takers for non-violence.
It is so easy to say that fasting is a silly idea. But have you ever tried it? Gandhi’s time might have been different. But how do you know that it will not work in your time? What would you lose in trying?
Look at how people above are provoked and reacting so aggressively against Gandhian principles. People admire the fact that non-violence was what was instrumental in bringing us Independence but asked to practice the same principles today, they are reluctant. This is hypocrisy.
Terrorist are created not without reason. More often than it is victims of corruption and injustice who become terrorists. It would be sensible to take time to reflect upon ourselves and the society to see that the cause for terrorism is removed. Of course all cases of terrorism cannot be dealt in the same manner. Atleast some effort can be put to eliminate the cause.
MR.BHAMY V. SHENOY I agree with your ideology, its worth a try!
ooooh, after reading Vinay’s post, I got converted to the view that fasting is the way to go. Once we all fast, the jihadis will give up terrorism!
I now see Vinay’s point — all the women who are buried to their waist and on whom rocks are thrown by Arab men are not victims of barbarism. Those who throw rocks at them and kill them are the victims of injustice and corruption.
We must eradicate the root cause instead of helping the women. The evil women in Arab countries probably deserve it and the poor men who fling rocks on the women are the good people.
What most people here don’t seem to be understanding is that Gandhi’s methods are not to be equated with “weapons” in a “war”.
It is not a simple matter of x weapon killing y number of soldiers therefore we win.
What most people here don’t seem to realize is that the British were more than happy to leave behind a balkanized region of squabbling provinces and principalities perpetaually at each other’s throats over matters of region, ethnicity, religion, caste and what not.
Gandhi’s methods got us to look past those differences and unearth a common identity. It is true he did not succeed 100%, but you forget that there were millions of Muslims who voluntarily chose to live in India despite the Partition. Without Gandhi, we would have been dealing with Partitions in plural.
Treating terrorism as a pure law and order problem would be fine if we had a modicum of either in our country. Sure, terrorists are bad because they strike suddenly, but what about those who incite organized violence in the name of religion and caste. When the latter walk about freely with no fear of prosecution, what chance do we really have of catching secretive terrorists?
And let’s stop kidding ourselves with the whole foreign hand bullshit. It may have been true some years back, maybe a couple of decades too, but let’s accept that home grown terror is here to stay. If we accept that terror can be of the home grown variety, then we admit that the solution lies in changing things here and not ranting on blogs against Pakistan.
So what is driving this bout of home grown terror?
I don’t know. Hell, the people who are supposed to don’t, which is why the denial.
What I think, BVS is suggesting is that we turn that searchlight within ourselves, as Gandhi taught us to do and find the answers there.
I could of course be wrong and he could be a economics-wiz who wants to try a radical anti-inflationary measure, but either way, we don’t end up worse of.
Vinay says
“Gandhi’s time might have been different.”
No his opponent were different.He did NOT succeed in defending Hindus in Noakhali,Moplah etc from being butchered by the muslims.His methods are simply not practical at most and laughable at worst.That’s why the so called Gandhians like the late Nirmala Deshpande and others do not dare to advise the muslims of Gujarat to forrgive and forget,in the Gandhian way.Because they know they will be laughed at.All their advice is for the Hindus only.Gandhi and his idiotic ideals are responsible for the cancer that is plaguing the Indian societry these days.
It is all the fault of Nehru and Gandhi. The muslims would have been pushed out during the partition, but they allowed them to stay to show how humane India is. Pakistan and Bangladesh tolerate no Hindus. Why do HIndus have to be soft on Muslim terror? India has already lost Kashmir–no Hindus left there–all kicked out by insurgents supported by Pakistan. Imagine if the Pandits were Muslims kicked out like that, the media would have raised an uproar. Why do these people not leave to their blessed Muslim lands Pakistan and Bangladesh if they are not happy? Sometime the solution is a harsh one. How did Spain take care of the Muslim problem–at gun point (think like us, that is convert, or leave or die, that was the choice given to them). When a minority cannot integrate itself with the majority for over a millenia then something is wrong with them.
You need the strictest laws to deal with terrorism.
Following the logic of this article, perhaps India should fast also to get rid of poverty and all its other ills?
Gandhi was great because he created Indian nationalism and his ideas were used in the American civil rights and in South Africa. Since these movements were successful he is great. He was a determined man–but read his biography and you will see he was a weirdo–he was obsessed with sex and diet.
It seems, there is a special bond between Gandhigiri and the Muslim issue. Whenever Muslims are found violating the public peace, Gandhians emerge from nowhere to preach about non-violence. Come the threatening Cheddies (in your own lingo) just about to open up their third eye, and you would start heckling, yelling and filing PILs against them. All Gandhigiri seems to lose its steam way right there. Do we still require knowing who inflicted a lasting damage to Gandhi’s name post-Independence? Part of Indians (mostly those in power directly or indirectly) have been using him just like a toilet paper, whenever faced with social stigmas or a challenge of the present-day order.
Gandhi was not a set of stale dictates, dos and don’ts, nor a facade for cowardice (though he may be exactly that by now). If anything, he was a sage and awakened guru with a vision about India’s social disorders and the necessity of a lasting change. Whether it came through non-violence or not is irrelevant. Whether British condoned him due to sheer compassion or not is irrelevant. The paramount fact is he succeeded, and did so in an amazing style.
What was left after his demise though, a mass of selfish and deeply divided Indians, who were willing to be hiding behind his portraits to pursue on their own short term goals. Things are falling apart badly in 2008, as a result. Gandhi is more of a joke, just like the word secularism, in the present-day order, just due to our mindlessness.
One should respect if somebody asked to cool down and introspect, but kindly do not bring in Gandhi into this picture anymore. The notion is almost over by now. Anger leads to nowhere, we all know. Therefore, taking a deep breath of silence before trying to counter the menace of Islamic terror, is the only best answer. No blind Babri mosque demolition or the 2002 Gujarat riots can help the majority in the longer run even if they succeeded in their perceived goals. They will still have to carry on with Muslim blood on their hands, and you don’t know when it gets replaced by the Hindu one. History suggests, if you killed others, you would end up killing your own ones, one fine day!
Why should we all fast on 15th August, when most of the Indians are already on fast for 12 hours everyday. Many find it difficult to get one square meal a day. !5th being a long week end, all in the un-organised sector are going to fast for 3 days. We plan for 5% nuck energy, whic we are supposed to get after 15 years when more than 50% of our people do not have Two Rotis, kapada and makan. Our government is spine less. They promote terrorism in the name / guise of secularism. Tell the Muslims that they have to stop all this nonsense and otherwise they will be treated as second class citizens. Put a tag on them. Yesterday they have found bombs and detonators with one Abdul Kafoor in TN. Not with Rama Iyer.
We have precedence. When SOME upper class Hindus were supposed to have treated the Dalits badly, the whole Upper casts were labelled as bad and are being deprived all the benefits. Same thing holds good with the Muslims, tell them that their place in the society will be second class, if they continue to harbour these terrorists and support them. All the Muslims in India must suffer and pay for all this.
One thing is quiet obvious, the UPA is trying to instigate the Hindus to do some thing violent so that they can once again call them as anti secular!
We have minority colleges in India for Muslims and how many of these graduates continue to stay in India and work for the country. 90% of them go to Gulf! Our Government gives reservation for them and spend the tax payers money on them of the sake of VOTES and nothing else but promote terrorism.
>>Let’s go hungry on August 15 to starve the terrorists of their oxygen.
Isn’t this a non-sequitar? Please wake up to the facts. Seriously, but where do these people with such fantastic ideas come from? You’re going hungry on 15th is not gonna do anything to stop this menace.
Vinay,
I dont know why it has to be extremes. Does advocating security measures, what ever they may be, to secure our country and people constitute an act or thought of violence? What you have said and what Dr. Shenoy has said is pure balderdash.
Splendid idea. Why even bother setting up intelligence and surveillance systems? Let us all fast for a day and pray that jihadis, oozing with pity and sympathy, will give up their arms and their 72 virgin reward.
Fasting sounds like a great idea. Infact it is recommended every 15 days once. But its only to give your digestive system the much need rest!
Thinking that the blood-thirsty terrorists will melt with sympathy is naviety, putting it euphemistically.
@Vinay
>>Terrorist are created not without reason. More often than it is victims of corruption and injustice who become terrorist
In this case, every Indian shouldve become a terrorist!
” It is so easy to say that fasting is a silly idea. But have you ever tried it? ”
fasting may be a bright idea. got to see what the motive is. you want to lose weight because you ate too much, go fast.
“People admire the fact that non-violence was what was instrumental in bringing us Independence but asked to practice the same principles today, they are reluctant.”
quit speaking for ‘people’. speak for yourself. there are people there who dont think gandhi won us independence, single handedly or double handedly. there are people who are willing to listen to the britishers themselves on the reason behind granting independence – ie Netaji led revolt.
and quit using bland assertions to prove your theories. that does not work, post ’eminent historians’.
“Terrorist are created not without reason”
so are rapists not created without reason. so are pick-pockets, chain snatchers, serial killers.
Why is it okay to hate rapists and thrash pick-pockets? and not okay to raise a finger against terrorists from the religion of peace?
the last man to hang in india was a rapist. why is it that the man who very well deserves to hang – supreme court is done with him – is not yet swinging?
if you *must* fast, get a list of all crimes in IPC and start a fast from today till eternity for every section there.
The enemies of our country are not jehadis or muslims or anybody. It is our own people. How many communists condemn such dastardly acts. Sitaram Yechury comes to Bangalore and says let us be calm (meaning let us suffer more), because after all, it is not the politicians who die. A former PM said in an Iftar party that if there is a re-birth, he would like to be born as a Muslim. Many political parties opine that because of BJP’s presence, it is all happening. Gandhiji’s method worked coupled with the efforts of Bose, Azad, Bhagat Singh etc. Moreover, the British were also fed up and they had looted everything they wanted. Those were the different times. Now?! I wonder. Secondly, what should we protest, whom should we protest? Protest our own inefficiency or protest the unknown hands?!
BVS – Gandhi’s ideals are all passe. He was living in a dream world of Lev Tolstoy and Henry Thoruea. The reality in India is different.
We need to understand the root of the problem of terrorisn, the Islamic mindset and propoganda machinery.
There are three things which need to be done.
One kill the suspects in encounters. Atleast finish 1000 terror suspects. No need for concrete evidence even minor involvement in terror outfits like SIMI, HUJI or whatever crap organization they belong to should be enough. No need to keep them in Jail living on the tax payer money. Publicise these killings. Show these on TV. Let the terrorists know that India is not a soft state and what they and their supporters will get into.
Two get on to a cultural attack on the Wahhabhi version of Islam through all the media outlets and propoganda avaialable.
Three – get the people who can do this into power. You know who right?
I am wondering where are the human rights groups. Those people who scream and shout when the supreme court provides the sentence to hang Afzal guru and other terrorists. How is our prime minister sleeping now. He only loses sleep when some terrorists are convicted in foregin courts. Who cares for these people who lost their lives. Our Kumarswamy even promised a government job to a terrorist convicted doctor.
Hindus dying is of no consequence to them as we Dhimmis do not have the right to live in their monochrome monotheistic worldview of Missionaries, marxists and mullahs. The mullahs and missionaries dont bother about pagan idol worshippers. The indian Marxists views the hindus as fuedal as against the non-fuedal monotheism of abrahamic religions. Social engineering at its best. Hindus you have no right to live. Count your days or else act.
The only thing Mr Bhamy is suggesting is that civil siciety articulates its expectations from the gaurdians of the Law- fasting is one way and is certainly superior than blaming each other or reading gossip rags in the obscene seatch for information. Gandhi himself has said his methods were old as the hills and he did not invent them. Passive resistance is what made the Lord of Death yeild to Nachiketa in legend of yore. The very fact that we would rattle our cardboard sabres shows how much we are actually sold on the ideology of violence and death these terrorirs propogate.
VP you ask us to learn grom Istael who have been at it even before we heard the word Jihad (debatably a flawed statement) and if they kept up at their aggressor ways loks like they will be at it after everyone have gone home !
Bharatham I dont know who are these people who we should bring in to power to usher in PEACE?
I wonder why Mandiba turned away from Violence to Truth and Reconcilaition when he came to power. I know the wannabe hawks will tell me prison life had broken him- him the strongest man in public life even now!
“I wonder why Mandiba turned away from Violence to Truth and Reconcilaition when he came to power”
This is in reply to the above and to Bhamy’s query about Mandela. As alluded in one of the postings, Mandela as well as ANC turned away from violence not because of inspiration from Gandhi’s teachings but because the Western powers as well as Russia disapproved their violent approach and ensured that they remained non-violent before pressure was put on South African white Afrikan leaders. This obviously happened long before Mandela was released from jail. Indeed, De Klerk had to convince himself that this tranformation happened, before he could sell it to his fellow white Afrikan community.
When Mandela became the President he knew that his life and the future of ANC depended on ensuring that the non-violence stance continued. We should remember that the South African Military and Police were white Afrikans at the time of his ascendancy to presidentship and any vengeful act on his part would have been suicidal for him and the ANC, and the whole ‘de-aparthiedation process’ would have halted on its track. But there was clamour from the black followers to seek justice for white Afrikan excesses, and for this reason ‘The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ was established with Desmond Tutu taking active part to ‘to enable South Africans to come to terms with their past’. that way Desmond Tutu was able to diffuse the anger of blacks. Even today, there is a strong black constituency in South Africa who want white Afrikans to face ‘the music’. Though Mandela accepted the West and Russian conditions, his followers, Embeki the current SA president and Zuma the deemed president are ambivalent about it and this is one of the reasons why they support Mugabe even after he has perpetrated genocide and reduced his country to a basket case, because they respect him as one who fought bush wars with Rhodesia’s white rulers.
As part of gesture of reconciliation, Mandela attended the first test match after the apartheid era between South Africa and England at Lords, and applauded the ALL WHITE South African team much to the disappointment of Basil D’Olivera who aired his disappointment in the BBC radio 4 commentary.
An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded.PopeJohnPaulIIPope John Paul II
Is this a joke? I say lets all have biriyani and celebrate life. The best revenge is to live well and don’t forget that a hungry man is an angry man!
As long as major political parties carry on the appeasement policies these jihadis will grow in strength. Only a party with guts to take them on up front and use all available means to the government can help the common man. But this is very wishful thinking knowing where this country is heading to.
For all those people who advocate Gandhigiri approach to terrorism,
first try to go into a madrasa and volunteer to teach them mainstream education and see whether it works or go to a mosque and hold a satyagraha until the moulvi asks his congregation to denounce terrorism. If you are still in one piece after this then you can suggest others to follow gandhigiri
BTW I think Bhami Sir has got the date wrong.. ekadashi is on 12th not 15th ;)
so you are a journalist, no wonder!. Instead why not put pressure on political parties to focus on war that is waged upon us.
anyways, where are you from?. i wish to visit you on aug 15th and observe your strike. i’m from hyderabad and willing to visit you any city, that you might be from.
please mail me your location of strike on that day to my email or you could publish here. thanks
Churumuri’s standards is not declining, its just that we are getting racist wankers commenting here.
All mr. Bhamy V. Shenoy is trying to say is put all our differences aside and come together as the people of India not a Hindu / muslin / kannadiga /north Indian or whatever, but as an Indian.
These guys are trying to mess up our integrity.We should come together and stand against everything they want.
Yes its not going to solve the problem of ‘terrorists’, but it is going to bring us together, make us stronger.
fkin dumbasses.
Got a FB group running, join in
FB group – http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19649634658
That makes it three who seem to agree versus forty eight against!
>>”These guys are trying to mess up our integrity.We should come together and stand against everything they want. ”
Well said!
Bad math there! should be around forty something, there have been multiple postings by fellow netizens.
August 12 and 27 being Ekadashi, millions of Indians would be fasting on those days anyway. Besides, as Dharma points out, millions of others are already starving every day.
That seems like enough food deprivation to impress any terrorist.
If you go through the posts carefully, you will notice that the those advocating gandhigiri, fasting etc etc may be muslims disguised as Hindus.
“All mr. Bhamy V. Shenoy is trying to say is put all our differences aside and come together as the people of India not a Hindu / muslin / kannadiga /north Indian or whatever, but as an Indian”.
The above would only work if a muslim in India considers himself/herself as an Indian first and muslim next. Muslims considers Islam transcends national barriers and do not hesitate to kill their own brethern in their country for the sake of Islam.
For example, the 7/7 London Subway bombs killed all people of all nationalities and in a station called Aldgate which is located in a predominatly muslim area and a dozen of muslim commuters were killed. Later, police arrested a few muslim fanatics who helped the 7/7 muslim suicide bombers and under questioning these fanatics said a few muslim deaths are worth and as far as they were concerned, they were muslims first and British next. Those muslim terrorists who bombed th train in Madrid considered themselves as muslims first and Spanish next.
Finally, I will give you an example to show how muslims would not consider themselves as Indians first. In Mysore, during the Indo-Pakistan war to liberate East Pakisatan (Bangladesh), a muslim doctor who was born and brought up in Mysore, studied in Mysore Medical College, and practised as a doctor, his surgery near VV market, was arrested as a Pakistani Spy and convicted. When his Luxurious home was invaded, the police confiscated a high powered Wireless System which he used to communicate with his Pakistani masters. His frequent absences from Mysore and his surgery, and the strange visitors he used to have raised suspicion. What clinched was the Military accidentally intercepted his transmissions when they scanned the waves in Poona. They were able to log his transmissions and conversations, and the person, a Pakistani mole to whom he was comminicated was arrested at the Pakistani_Indian border. This was an educated muslim doctor, born, bred and worked in Mysore, considered himself muslim first and hence helped his Islamic brothern in Pakistan.
The example you give Hoysalanna is that of a greedy man. Whilst you say he helped his brethren in Pakistan and therefore conclude he saw himself as a muslim first- he did not consider his equally muslim brethren of Bangladesh while helping Pakistani intelligence !
I know many Hindus who consider themselves Vokkaliga or Brahmin or Sheety first- Kannadiga/Tamilaian/Telugu person next and as an Indian only as an afterthought and all of them are equally patritic nut cases. Divergent identities need not be antipathic to each other!
will check the panchanga and will fast if its a ekadasi :))
Gaby or Gabrielle
You just forget that the difference between A shetty or vokkaliga first
and a muslim first is this. The former do not have loyalties beyong his/her country by way of religion like Islam. Divergent identities need not be antipathic? That is what the Indian political leaders think about these fanatic muslims who hurl bombs. Also you missed the point about the doctor. He was helping Pakistan to win the war. Helping muslim brethern of Bangladesh- I feel exasperated by your arguments. You seem not to know muslims well and Bangladesh war well.
You feel exasperated Hoysala! Well welcome to the club of those who read your comments!
haha. nice one.
@ mr. cop car, you are probably one of the shallowest people i have met, apart of course from the 40 other people in this forum.
Stop stereotyping people; everyone does whatever they do only after a series of experiences resulting on their outlook on life, not just getting up one day and blowing up the world.
The above would also only work if you considered yourself an Indian and not Hindu first. Damm, hypocrite.
@ mallapottell, im Hindu. your topping my charts too.
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p.s Godse was a RSS man. go figure.
Bhamy nice article. I suggest a more intensive way of protest.
On Aug 15th I am planning to Self Flagette myself till I bleed. Then I am going to lie down on a bed of sharp nails till the next midnight. This will melt the hearts of the terrorists and they will all come to me and request me to break my penance. They will come and feed me with the wonderful sweet called Haleem followed by Halal Chicken Biriyani and suleimani chai.
Love would pervail and Hindu, muslim, sikh and isaiee will all live happily everafter.
I request the readers of Churumuri to join me and participate in this great endeavour.
I feel very sad reading all these exchange of comments. My very purpose of bringing all of us on a single platform to think deeply about the problem irrespective of our religions, ideology etc is completely lost. In fact this has generated far more heat and controversy than the underlying problem which gives rise to terrorism.
I am all for strict implementation of laws against the terrorists. I am also for improving intellegence 1000% in our country. I am all for identyfying those who are likely to be terrorists for example based on religious schools one go to and where some future terrorists are indoctrinated. Intelligence must have many such leads and we should never hesitate to look into them.
I need not state that I have failed in my goal. This is not to imply my suggestion was wrong. It was just that I failed to develop argument to convince those who have midly to violently disagreed with me. Some of you may recall that in the US they tied red (I am not sure about the colour) ribbon when people died because of terrorism. This was just a symbolic gesture and not that any of them expected that terrorists would be swayed by any such gesture. Millions participated in this voluntary act and I do not recall even one criticism – mild or violent-against it. It is possible that I might have been influenced in my thinking by this events also though Gandhiji’s philoposphy of non-violence was the main impetus.
Instead of finding faults with each others view point in an agresive manner, can we discuss them to find a solution? Do we think that the strictest implementation of the best anti-terrorist laws alone will solve the problem? Again I am all for strict implementation. Look at Israel. No country including the US can have a better anti-terror law and also the best intellegence. Have they succeeded in putting down the terrorism? Let us learn from different successful ways of putting down terrorism?
Finally let me give an example of what I was expecting by copying a short article below.
New Delhi: Back in 1985, a series of transistor bombs exploded in different parts of Delhi causing the death of at least 50 and creating panic in the capital. The case was cracked in a few days, recalls Ved Marwah, Delhi’s Commissioner of Police at the time, thanks to information provided by a maid-servant. She had seen the terrorists assemble a bunch of transistors and reported the matter to the police. ”We immediately carried out raids and made the arrests,” says Marwah.
This crucial role played by the anonymous maid-servant in apprehending the perpetrators of the crime underlines the role a common citizen can play in combating terror. As Prakash Singh, former DG (BSF), puts it: ”Every citizen is a policeman in civilian clothes and each cop is a citizen in uniform.” But barring huge advertisements intermittently issued by the police imploring citizen to be alert, the potential role of ordinary people in the fight against terrorism has been largely ignored in India.
The truth is that ordinary people are the biggest victims of terrorism. According to the data put out by South Asia Terrorism Portal, between 1994 and 2005, 18,151 civilians died in terrorist strikes. In comparison, only 6,728 security personnel were killed in the same period. The figure doesn’t include fatalities caused by left-wing extremism. Last year, 1,009 common people died in terrorist strikes and after the Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts on Saturday, the number of civilian casualties this year has crossed 500.
Common citizens have the biggest stake in fighting terrorism. However, the question is: what are the platforms available to them for carrying out the fight against fear and death? In 2003, the US government responded to 9/11 by setting up the department of homeland security and spending about $ 25 billion to shore up internal security.
The department offers every citizen the opportunity to report any suspected criminal or terror activity to the FBI, online or by calling up local or international FBI officers.
That apart, the citizen corps, coordinated nationally by the same department, helps synchronize volunteer activities to make ”communities safer, stronger, and better prepared to respond to any emergency situation. It also provides opportunities for people to participate in a range of measures to make their families, homes, and communities safer from the threats of crime, terrorism, and disasters of all kinds.”
Similarly, the website – ready.gov – also developed by the US department, helps citizens prepare for potential threats from terrorism at home. The website acts as a guide to civilians who wants to plan for any eventuality. Guidance to prepare special survival kits, including those for people with special needs, is also laid out.
I am not sure whether we can take Mahatma Gandhi and Neslson Mandela always prescribed non voilence. Also whether fasting was the only weapon. Hindu philosophy prescribes, 4 strategies or a combination of any to deal with a problem, Sama, dana, beda and danda (dhanda) I am also not sure whether Gandhiji objected to sending of troops to Kashmir to rescue it from attackers who were backed by Pakistan in 1947-48. As far as I know he did not. Gandhiji at no time objected to the hindu doctrine stated above as far as I know. He adopted non violence against British rule
Problem with us is we become rigid and start telling this is the only method for a solution even though we also profess there are many paths and all those lead to self actualisation while referring to many faiths.
In Punjab KPS Gill has been successful in adopting a combination of mehods. This example is before us. I do not object if Mr Bhamy and others holding similar views fast and get us the solution. If some others want to hold havens they are welcome. Let us allow the elected government to adopt its own way. What is required is the solution to the issue
Dear Writer,
You are a 24 carat idiot. It is because of terror apologists like you these terrorists get support and appeasement. Please do us all a favour and fast yourself to death.