The joke called 'Javed Miandad' from Pakistan

Javed Miandad says India should tour Pakistan. Oh ! really. What for ? So you have the entire Indian team bombed by your relative Dawood Ibrahim who is a globally wanted terrorist !!

He says:

 Both India and Pakistan are victims of terrorism 

and cricket will bridge the gap between the two nations....This is

 the right time for the Asian bloc to show some solidarity by 

coming together and assuring the world that the subcontinent is 

safe for cricket.

I ask "why would you not set an example by sharing with Indian authorities the wherabouts of the man whose family your son is married into, Dawood Ibrahim ?"

Will that not be the real show of solidarity. I think it would also be right to remind him how he has refused to admit his meeting with Dawood Ibrahim before the much reported ceremony  in Dubai.

I'll tell you what Javed. We welcome you and your entire clan to India. We can all have fun, go fishing, karting, play cricket and have all kinds of fun and gift your relative Dawood a tourism package so he could go on a location hunting spree to choose the next places he wants to bomb in India.

Hell with cricket. Pakistan should be crippled in every way it can be until it takes solid actions and not the much touted 'house-arrests'.

The annoyance called Celebrities

Two weeks and we are now witnessing the tragedy dramas of the queens and the kings and bollywood.

It started with Simi garewal on NDTV two days after the incident and had by now covered everyone whos worth talking something about in B-town. 

Shahrukh khan said he is staying quiet because he wanted to avoid controversy which makes me think about what he would have said that could have raged into a controversy. He probably would have said India and Pakistan are brothers and Pakistan is like a second home to him and that Indians and Pakistanis should stay united and hold hands in the hour of crisis, like he would always say. I know this is all my imagination. Although he has always maintained a similar stance about Pakistan I guess he didn't have the courage to say that this time around.

Now comes Aamir Khan whose film Ghazni is releasing soon. He feels there is a leadership vaccum in the country right now.  

This is not enough. I want more. How about bringing their spouses as well and interviewing them. Would it not be a very 'different' idea. Losers !!

Is the Police really Dumb ?

All the sympathy that I have had for the policing authorities of our country in the aftermath of the Mumbai carnage is receding as I read reports like these:

1. In this incident police in Hyderabad, on a tip-off from its informers that a SIMI activist wanted by the police has arrived in the city, had gone to nab him literally unarmed. Being the kind of professionals they were the suspected terrorists when approached by the police resorted to firing at the police and managed to escape through the busy streets of old city. Resulting in two policeman being injured, one of them seriously.

What I do not get is what was going through the policemen's minds when they set out to catch these guys. Did they think they were going for a pick-pocketer ? Lucky to getaway with injuries and no casualties.

2. This incident happened just today. School going teenagers were being used by the local police to keep an eye on any suspicious movements of people along the Prime Minister's cavalcade route from atop trees. How stupid ? How would a kid know the difference between an ordinary guy and a terrorist, just in case a terrorist would come in a t-shirt and cargo trouser like they did in the Mumbai attacks ?

After what had happened in the past week could we afford to commit any more mistakes. Could our authorities not respond to the needs of the hour? What have we learnt from the most daring attacks ever on our society ? I always thought we could do better.

India has proof of ISI invovlement in Mumbai attacks

I read this report on how and why the Indian agencies have been holding back from divulging details of incriminating evidence pointing to the ISI's involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

If it is true then I don't think it is the right thing to do.

Should I choose between having a good relationship with an incompetent Pakistani govt. that would refuse/fail to call a spade a spade, fail miserably in addressing those perpetrators of terrorism and pushing the Pakistani govt to the wall by revealing all incriminating evidences and calling its attention to act tough on such forces by bring all kinds of pressures against it, I would without a doubt choose the latter.

Since the reasoning that escalating tensions with India would make Pakistan redeploy troops from their western borders to the east which would inturn hurt its prospects of fighting terrorism on that front is not convincing enough as this would not help address the root

causes of terrorism that operatives on its eastern border. Lesser the pressure on the Pakistan government less likely would it be willing to react to calls for a crack down on terror operatives launching out from its own soil.

Why should we not trust Pakistan ?

In the past two days we have seen Pakistan's president Mr.Zardari say there is no Pakistani hand in the Mumbai attack whatsoever. Which does not surprise me.

He turned down India's demand to handover its most wanted terrorists who are relaxing in their safe havens inside Pakistan. That does not surprise me either.

Instead he asks India to share with him the evidence it has so he can try them in a court of law in Pakistan and have them punished. This does surprise me. Why ? Two reasons.

Reason 1:

All these years Pakistan has denied that a man by the name Dawood Ibrahim resides in Pakistan despite repeated requests/demands by the Indian Government. But yesterday, quite contrastingly, he refuses to handover the terrorists instead of denying their existence in pakistan which is nothing less than admitting their existence in Pakistan.

Reason 2:

What has Pakistan done when the father of its missile program was accused of proliferation ? They did not deny it but put him under 'house arrest'. They deny IAEA access to the arrested former scientist. He has never been investigated despite the issue here being something as grave as Nuclear proliferation.

Now asking India to provide/share evidence on Mumbai attacks with a promise of action against culprits does not stand a reason. Who are you trying to bluff Mr. President ?

Achutanandan's remarks..

A lot is being made from Achutanandan's reported remarks against the family of slain NSG Major Mr. Unnikrishnan. I should admit here that I think the Chief minister should have observed some restraint in reacting to the Major's father's reported slurs at him.

The only question at the back of my mind is: Why should he visit the late Major's residence in Bangalore at all ?

If it wasn't to impress upon the people of his state, he should not have visited at all. After all Major Unnikrishnan has died for the country and not for Kerala and the nearest top ranking politician i.e. the Karnataka CM has already visited to pay respect to the national hero and his family.

update:

Just watched the video of Major's father turning away the Kerala CM and HM. It was disgusting to see someone say naayinglaa (meaning dogs) and pongada (chal nikal re in hindi) to people of such high positions. Its not acceptable in anyway. He didn't have any moral right to abuse a peoples representative in that manner.

Media coverage of the Mumbai siege

How about this.

You approach an opposition leader and ask him his views on the attacks in Mumbai. He starts off saying this is a dastardly attack on the soverignity of the nation and all Indians should stay united.

You ask him who is responsible for Mumbai or India being so vulnerable. He replies saying its the central government thats reponsible to the security of the country and also iterates that the Union govt has failed in its primary responsiblity of protecting the citizens.

Cut the scene. He is gone. Now you start transmitting images of the politician blaming the govt for its failure and repeatedly say "the politicisation of the issue has already started".

Now starts the real tamasha. You start blaming the union govt yourselves and repeatedly show the iamges of the former union Home Minister doing the rounds to various terror affected sites over the past few years and broadcast his statements from each occasion.

Hang on a second. Are you not politicising the issue. This is what the other guy did as well. If that could be called politicising then why should what you are doing called politicising.

This is how the general coverage of the entire issue in the media has been over the past few days, albeit with a few decent exceptions. On the whole I would say the media's coverage of the issue is a Disgrace.

Bringing a few dozen people on to a television show and riling them all up against the politicians does not come any closer to promoting unity among the citizens of the country. Grow up guys.