One person will be mourning the death of Sidney Sheldon, who died this year, more than anyone else in the world and that is none other than the Pakistani Military ruler General Pervez Musharraff. I mean come on where will he get any more ideas and inspiration to come close to his first literary venture, “In the Line of Honor”.
I read the whole book sitting uncomfortably in one of the bookstore on my two consecutive weekend trips. The book read was more out of curiosity per se’ than my endorsement to the literary talents or thoughts of Mr. Musharraff. Now before you think that I am going to slam the facts and thought presented in the book all through this write-up, I really have no intention of doing that. I loved reading the book but for different reasons and have mixed reactions towards it, the following are some:
General Musharraff (– the person) – The first few sections of the book talks about the childhood of Musharraff and revolves around his education in Turkey and in Pakistan. There are few sections which also talks about his entry in the Pakistan Military Academy and his rise within the military ranks. Although you get a high dose of self indulgence by the author, one has to give credit to the man for what he has achieved. Pakistan have had its share of devious politicians, corruption embedded in its government machinery (including military), religious extremism etc but to grow up from humble backgrounds to the stature of being the President of the country, you got to give some credit to the man, i.e. Musharraff.
Musharraff – the reformer – Pakistan does look like a different country today than it was ever before and there is no denying to that fact. Musharraff has been spot on in marketing his country on the world stage. A country which was on the verge of being declared as a rogue state has been able to bounce back and on the recovery. He has managed well to keep religious extremism at bay and had gone the moderate way on empowering women, initiating infrastructure development projects, reforming madrassas etc. The book has details about many other reforms which he has promoted, which more looks like items right from his resume, the ground reality of many is definitely in question.
Facts of wars – So here’s how it goes…….1965, 1971, Kargil conflict……the reason for the wars…..India’s aggressive attitude and its attack on Pakistani soil. Offcourse this is the Pakistani version of things as narrated by Musharraff and I am pretty sure we as Indians have an altogether different story to tell. Do you and I know the truth??…..I don’t think so. The military buildup around the Indo-Pak border is always heavy and the intensity of the situation, who gets on the offensive first, who got maximum casualty, this all will always have a different version dependent on whether you are Pakistani or Indian. It is for sure that we don’t and won’t ever get the full story.
Story of assassination attempts – I am just guessing who will be first, Vikram Bhatt or Sanjay Gupta, to read the book and utilize the assassination plots from the book into their movies. I bet they don’t even have to twist dialogues around. The events as narrated in the book are exhilarating and edgy. Take for instance a situation, a plane carrying Musharraff and his wife which has fuel worth only a few flying minutes left is refused to land in Pakistan and how the Pakistani military gains control on ground and stage a coup d'état and save their future President by getting the plane land just in time. He is definitely in the line of fire.
Lashing out on India – I think being the President of Pakistan this is part of his job role. He didn’t leave any opportunity in the book to talk ill about India. One of the things I do remember from the book and he mentions that post the failure of the Agra Summit, he was not allowed to speak to the press and he claims what sort of a free country is this where people’s questions are remained answered. Well whatever may be the reasons for not letting Musharraff speak to the media, the Indian government definitely didn’t wanted him to gain any ground by presenting his side of the story…..I guess fair enough. Just on the question of freedom of press and the people’s freedom of choice, we certainly know that very recently a Pakistani media company people were physically abused by the govt. for capturing the police brutality during the protests against firing of Pakistani Chief Justice.
Pakistan and US – Pakistan is a fragile country and no one knows this better than the US. All culprits of the 9/11 event had some or the other links to Pakistan. The US is stuffing money into Pakistan to keep their footing there and monitor things on their own. In a sense the US is making things easy for Musharraff as well by keeping a check on religious extremists and pro-Taliban groups who are definitely a big threat for Musharraff.
His future role and future of Pakistan – He talks about a lot of stuff he wants to do but who knows what is in store for Pakistan. Musharraff has no guarantee that he will stay on the job. There have been many assassination attempts and who knows his luck may run out sooner than he thinks. Pakistan has a troubled history when it comes to politics and the agenda of the whole nation seems to change as soon as a new group comes to power. It would be really foolish to predict where Pakistan is headed....let's just wait and watch.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Australian Cricket marches on……..are u watching Mr. Gavaskar?
It has been a perfect start to the ICC cricket mela (World Cup’07) barring the death of Bob Woolmer; a glittering opening ceremony, a splendid run in the tournament for the host nation and a war of words between two of cricket’s many great avtaars. Here are the views of Sunil Gavaskar followed by the responses of Ricky Ponting:
Gavaskar: “There is not the slightest doubt that in the last decade or so the Aussies have been awesome in batting, bowling and fielding which has taken them to the top of the cricketing ladder in both Test and limited overs cricket.
But they have also been awful in the way they have sometimes behaved on the field much to the chagrin of the traditional fans of the game,"
Ponting: "For him to go on about behavior, not too many captains have dragged their teams off the field, either," Ponting said. "I don't mind if 'Mr. Perfect' comes out and goes on about our team; I know we are all not perfect. We are not going to keep everyone happy 100% of the time. But for some of these guys that have done it all themselves, it's pretty high and mighty for them to say that."
I have no reservations in admitting that I am a big admirer of Australian Cricket but I agree to Gavaskar’s comment to only a certain extent.
The Australian Cricket team has been a force for more than a decade now and no team has come close to put up a reasonable challenge to them. The fact is not that the other teams are not trying hard or playing better or maybe their cricket standards going down, it’s just that Australian team have had the fortune of fielding together some players like Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Ponting etc who are amongst the best the game has ever seen.
The Australians play aggressive cricket and play at a standard which does not differ irrespective of the opponent they are up against.
Aggressiveness is a trait quite handy for succeeding and Australian Cricket team is no exception. They play tough cricket and deserve all they have achieved. So if Mr. Gavaskar thinks that Ponting has a big mouth, well too bad Mr. Gavaskar but Ponting has every right to promote his team players and be aggressive. His team performs in difficult circumstances and in most cases he leads the charge.
Good humored banter is acceptable but sledging has no place in a sport like cricket. There is no denying that numerous cases have been witnessed where Australian Cricketers have been seen sledging on the field. Some of the famous incidents include the McGrath – Sarwan tiff in a match. But things have changed over the past few years as Cricket Australia (governing body) has come out with clear guidelines for its players and how their behavior should be on the playing field. There has been a drastic change seen in on field behavior since then.
The point here is that the on-field umpires are the best equipped people on the field to notice any sledging and report to the match officials and noticeably records don’t show too many Australian Cricketers being punished for sledging. Does that mean the umpires are not doing their job or the players’ talk is not considered as serious as sledging? I will go with the latter one placing full confidence in the abilities of the umpires.
Allan Border rightly points out “Cricket is a global sport in which different cultures lock horns out in the middle. Only the nuances of the game may vary from country to country”. What might be a light humored statement for people from a particular culture might turn out to be an offensive statement for the other. Each sportsman is gutting it out in the middle and emotionally charged and in the heat of the moment anything coming out of anyone’s mind is quite a possibility. In person it’s quite certain they are a different individual altogether.
I think Sunil Gavaskar should help fix things in team India (if he can work around his inflated ego) rather than engaging in mudslinging with Ponting so that we have something to talk about whenever encountering an Australian Cricket enthusiast. I mean for god sake look at the disgusting performance of the Indian cricket team. And yeah……I am rooting for the Australian Cricket team to take the Cricket World Cup.
Gavaskar: “There is not the slightest doubt that in the last decade or so the Aussies have been awesome in batting, bowling and fielding which has taken them to the top of the cricketing ladder in both Test and limited overs cricket.
But they have also been awful in the way they have sometimes behaved on the field much to the chagrin of the traditional fans of the game,"
Ponting: "For him to go on about behavior, not too many captains have dragged their teams off the field, either," Ponting said. "I don't mind if 'Mr. Perfect' comes out and goes on about our team; I know we are all not perfect. We are not going to keep everyone happy 100% of the time. But for some of these guys that have done it all themselves, it's pretty high and mighty for them to say that."
I have no reservations in admitting that I am a big admirer of Australian Cricket but I agree to Gavaskar’s comment to only a certain extent.
The Australian Cricket team has been a force for more than a decade now and no team has come close to put up a reasonable challenge to them. The fact is not that the other teams are not trying hard or playing better or maybe their cricket standards going down, it’s just that Australian team have had the fortune of fielding together some players like Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Ponting etc who are amongst the best the game has ever seen.
The Australians play aggressive cricket and play at a standard which does not differ irrespective of the opponent they are up against.
Aggressiveness is a trait quite handy for succeeding and Australian Cricket team is no exception. They play tough cricket and deserve all they have achieved. So if Mr. Gavaskar thinks that Ponting has a big mouth, well too bad Mr. Gavaskar but Ponting has every right to promote his team players and be aggressive. His team performs in difficult circumstances and in most cases he leads the charge.
Good humored banter is acceptable but sledging has no place in a sport like cricket. There is no denying that numerous cases have been witnessed where Australian Cricketers have been seen sledging on the field. Some of the famous incidents include the McGrath – Sarwan tiff in a match. But things have changed over the past few years as Cricket Australia (governing body) has come out with clear guidelines for its players and how their behavior should be on the playing field. There has been a drastic change seen in on field behavior since then.
The point here is that the on-field umpires are the best equipped people on the field to notice any sledging and report to the match officials and noticeably records don’t show too many Australian Cricketers being punished for sledging. Does that mean the umpires are not doing their job or the players’ talk is not considered as serious as sledging? I will go with the latter one placing full confidence in the abilities of the umpires.
Allan Border rightly points out “Cricket is a global sport in which different cultures lock horns out in the middle. Only the nuances of the game may vary from country to country”. What might be a light humored statement for people from a particular culture might turn out to be an offensive statement for the other. Each sportsman is gutting it out in the middle and emotionally charged and in the heat of the moment anything coming out of anyone’s mind is quite a possibility. In person it’s quite certain they are a different individual altogether.
I think Sunil Gavaskar should help fix things in team India (if he can work around his inflated ego) rather than engaging in mudslinging with Ponting so that we have something to talk about whenever encountering an Australian Cricket enthusiast. I mean for god sake look at the disgusting performance of the Indian cricket team. And yeah……I am rooting for the Australian Cricket team to take the Cricket World Cup.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Love is in the park…………… and so are the Police
City parks in India have been a solace to love birds for quite a few years now. Far away from the prying eyes, couples can be seen sharing intimate moments in the park. In Indian society circles’ having a pre-marital relationship is not widely accepted and if you happen to be in one, spending time with your love mate in the park is the way to go. It sounds pretty cheesy but then not every couple can afford an upscale meal on each date but yeah definitely some nice ice-cream together in the park. And offcourse, if Dharmendra - Hema Malini, Shah Rukh – Rani can sing and dance in the park how can our local Romeo and Juliet’s be behind.
December 20th, 2005 prime time television, showed a news story that angered me and I am sure quite a few others. The local police in Meerut (a small town in the Indian state of UP) conducted a drive named “Operation Majnu” (Romeo) across the city. The police went in to all city parks, caught hold of basically all couples present there and charged them with an “illicit behavior in public places” case. Any couple found in the parks by the Meerut police was caught, verbally abused and even beaten (including the
ladies). The images on television showed some additional footage though; just before the police caught the couples, they were seen to be engaged in conversations and off-course were present in the park with mutual consent. No cases of people “making-out” in the park was shown on television or either reported.
This act of moral policing was criticized and sparked off a big debate but after a few articles and television slots disappeared from all media forms.
December 2006, an organization named Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), took the mantle this time and went on rampage in parks this time in Ahmedabad (capital of the Indian state, Gujrat). The result: couples were beaten, humiliated and brought to the police station. One member of the VHP was seen declaring on national television, “If the police won’t do their jobs we will do it. The parents need to know what their daughters are upto.”
I couldn’t help this time but pen down my anger. Who are the police or the VHP to decide what people of this country can or cannot do? If I am not mistaken “Right to Freedom” is still one of the fundamental rights that the citizens of this country have. If young couples decide to spend some peaceful time in the park or for that matter anywhere, it is there wish. Their parents should be bothered if at all and not the police or the VHP.
The fact of the matter is that organizations such as the VHP or its wing Bajrang Dal or for that matter Shiv Sena are losing ground and influence all across the nation. They have to come up with things such as beating of young couples caught from the park, boycotting Valentine Day, asking for a ban on any random movie etc to make news and tell people that they are still around.
In the case of the beating of couples, the problem lies in the fact that as a guy who is caught, he can’t retaliate. Organizations such as VHP, Shiv Sena etc are manned by goons and the alternative left is to either surrender or to run. And what a shame that people have to run or surrender for something which is not at all a crime.
And for heaven’s sake we have more serious matters in this country which require attention. There are child marriages still happening, widowed women are still treated as a social outcast and lot of children still go to work rather than school, so why doesn’t these organizations do something about these issues. On a quick glance of the VHP website (http://www.vhp.org/), one can clearly see the objectives of the organizations and no interpretation of those objectives suggests justification to the act carried out by the VHP activist in Ahmedabad.
Why as citizens of this country we being tortured? Who gave the right to these organizations to decide the life or behavior of other people? Is there a way out to stop this menace?
Well sure is, the Supreme Court is the only body in the country which can limit organizations such as VHP, Shiv Sena, etc and their mindless activities. These organizations are exploiting the youth and taking them on the path of doom. The underprivileged youth in this country having limited or no access to education, jobs and mainstream public life is being shown a glossy picture of a good life ahead by these organizations. These youth are brainwashed to the extent that they rarely hesitate in starting or becoming part of mob violence, looting or even killing people.
The political parties of the country should take responsibility and also hold back these organizations as majority of these organizations are backed by the national/regional political parties. The people of this nation should also raise their voice and not be pressured by the illegal activities of these organizations. We have a choice through our “precious vote” and we should make full use of it. We decide which party is there for our welfare and which one is curbing it.
This moral policing by these organizations have to stop and the police/administration should act fearlessly in favor of the welfare of the people and should protect them. Hopefully through the newly reformed Police Act, the police force in the country will have access to independent measures of handling things and will not be forced to act on the orders of the ridiculous political parties' ideas.
December 20th, 2005 prime time television, showed a news story that angered me and I am sure quite a few others. The local police in Meerut (a small town in the Indian state of UP) conducted a drive named “Operation Majnu” (Romeo) across the city. The police went in to all city parks, caught hold of basically all couples present there and charged them with an “illicit behavior in public places” case. Any couple found in the parks by the Meerut police was caught, verbally abused and even beaten (including the
ladies). The images on television showed some additional footage though; just before the police caught the couples, they were seen to be engaged in conversations and off-course were present in the park with mutual consent. No cases of people “making-out” in the park was shown on television or either reported.This act of moral policing was criticized and sparked off a big debate but after a few articles and television slots disappeared from all media forms.
December 2006, an organization named Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), took the mantle this time and went on rampage in parks this time in Ahmedabad (capital of the Indian state, Gujrat). The result: couples were beaten, humiliated and brought to the police station. One member of the VHP was seen declaring on national television, “If the police won’t do their jobs we will do it. The parents need to know what their daughters are upto.”
I couldn’t help this time but pen down my anger. Who are the police or the VHP to decide what people of this country can or cannot do? If I am not mistaken “Right to Freedom” is still one of the fundamental rights that the citizens of this country have. If young couples decide to spend some peaceful time in the park or for that matter anywhere, it is there wish. Their parents should be bothered if at all and not the police or the VHP.
The fact of the matter is that organizations such as the VHP or its wing Bajrang Dal or for that matter Shiv Sena are losing ground and influence all across the nation. They have to come up with things such as beating of young couples caught from the park, boycotting Valentine Day, asking for a ban on any random movie etc to make news and tell people that they are still around.
In the case of the beating of couples, the problem lies in the fact that as a guy who is caught, he can’t retaliate. Organizations such as VHP, Shiv Sena etc are manned by goons and the alternative left is to either surrender or to run. And what a shame that people have to run or surrender for something which is not at all a crime.
And for heaven’s sake we have more serious matters in this country which require attention. There are child marriages still happening, widowed women are still treated as a social outcast and lot of children still go to work rather than school, so why doesn’t these organizations do something about these issues. On a quick glance of the VHP website (http://www.vhp.org/), one can clearly see the objectives of the organizations and no interpretation of those objectives suggests justification to the act carried out by the VHP activist in Ahmedabad.
Why as citizens of this country we being tortured? Who gave the right to these organizations to decide the life or behavior of other people? Is there a way out to stop this menace?
Well sure is, the Supreme Court is the only body in the country which can limit organizations such as VHP, Shiv Sena, etc and their mindless activities. These organizations are exploiting the youth and taking them on the path of doom. The underprivileged youth in this country having limited or no access to education, jobs and mainstream public life is being shown a glossy picture of a good life ahead by these organizations. These youth are brainwashed to the extent that they rarely hesitate in starting or becoming part of mob violence, looting or even killing people.
The political parties of the country should take responsibility and also hold back these organizations as majority of these organizations are backed by the national/regional political parties. The people of this nation should also raise their voice and not be pressured by the illegal activities of these organizations. We have a choice through our “precious vote” and we should make full use of it. We decide which party is there for our welfare and which one is curbing it.
This moral policing by these organizations have to stop and the police/administration should act fearlessly in favor of the welfare of the people and should protect them. Hopefully through the newly reformed Police Act, the police force in the country will have access to independent measures of handling things and will not be forced to act on the orders of the ridiculous political parties' ideas.
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