Thursday, May 22, 2008

A Welcome Move, But ...

The Muslim clergy in the country, reports say, are now mobilizing against terrorists from the
community. It is a welcome change, considering the Deoband school which is considered to provide the ideological underpinning to the extremist Wahabi brand of Islam, is at the forefront of the new movement. But then, there are other clergymen opposing them. Their argument: terrorism is not something which only the Muslims should be ashamed about. True, but those intellectuals who parrot the arguments of these clergy forget that all these new-fangled arguments are just a way to cover the extremist intentions of some Muslims at least. Leftist intellectuals have already bought into those arguments, and allowed Islamic extremism some amount of respect, in a trade off for votes.What is disturbing this time around, is the extremists and their intellectual backers are back at a time when there is a serious introspection within the community. Remember, these are the same people who opposed some films saying they were against Islam, when in truth they wanted to suppress a film showing a Muslim girl falling in love and marrying a Hindu boy. If it would have been the other way round, they wouldn't have minded. So much for their secularism! It is time we called the bluff of these wolves in sheep's clothing.

I have nothing against the Muslim community; many of my friends are from the community. What I am against is the competitive appeasement politics that is allowing these preachers of
violence to thrive under a garb of secular respectability.The earlier such idiots are put behind the bars, their intellectual backers exposed, and the moderates in the community given a chance to reasser themselves, the better for humanity and India!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Back to the podium!

I am back to updating this blog. Sorry for the interruption.
Plenty of interesting things have happened from the time I made my last post. But it would be impossible for me to start from where I ended. Forward H!
The comrades are back to their favorite game at the Center, threatening to pull down the government if the nuke deal is signed with the US and at the same time saying there is no threat to the government.
They are also facing a roiled polity in the two main states in which they wield power - Kerala and West Bengal.
Funny thing is they haven't learnt anything all these years!
If elections are called today, I am sure the Leftists will lose power everywhere. They are trying hard to make their relevance felt with talks about a Third Front but all that is bull shit that is going to go nowhere. Let us face it comrades: the UPA has only benefitted the Congress!

Monday, October 1, 2007

Make Kodiyeri The CM Of Kerala; Give Achu The Boot!

What is the CPM leadership doing? Are they going to sit and watch as the VS Achutanandan government is steadily frittering away the goodwill of the people through its inability to rule the state? With the issue of the 123 nuclear agreement with the United States coming to a head, it is understandable for the party's leadership to wish not to have two crises in hand at once.
The problem is this attitude is not going to solve the problem. If the party needs the same number of MPs in the next Parliament in case of a mid-term poll, it needs to act quickly. At the current rate the party will end up with a tally of a handful of MPs if elections are held now.
The unrepaired roads, the health machinery that has ground to a halt, the unending scandals involving the ministers, the problems the CPI is creating for the ministry with its hard headedness, and above all, the effete chief minister himself - all these are going to finish off the government in the state.
The only two ministers who are really governing in all this mess are the Home and Industries ministers, and unfortunately, the gains they have made are being sought to be nullified by Achumama's supporters in the party and media. Because they happen to be Pinarayi faction members.
But fact is fact, and Achu has proved to be the most hopeless chief minister a state can have. And if the CPM leadership wishes for the party's and people's well being they should immediately elevate Kodiyeri Balakrishnan to the chief minister's post and send Achu into a forced sabbatical from politics.
That is the least they can do now, at this late hour, if they feel they have any responsibility to the people of the state who brought them to power!