Saturday, November 29, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
India's 9/11-Mumbai Terror Attacks
Watching news coming from home on this Thanksgiving has made me sad and angry. There has been unprecedented coverage of Mumbai attacks in Western Media. Never in history have news channels CNN, NBC; FOX covered any terror attack in India in such details as they are covering since last 24 hours. CNN's partner CNN IBN and NBC's partner NDTV have been source of excellent media coverage to the western world. Most of the TV journos are on vacation here in US but the tragedy of this magnitude has made them engaged and busy over this holiday.
Because of foreign hostages, Western media and Government are very much interested in knowing developments happening in India minute by minute.
These attacks have put Mumbai's name in mouth of common American who otherwise doesn’t care to know anything other than what's happening here in US. It's a great learning for western media of what India and Mumbai are. Their lack of knowledge was widely apparent in shows such as Larry King live and American Morning on CNN.
Attacks after attacks from Jaipur to Bangalore to Mumbai have become norm and India is becoming one of unsafe places in the world. You go from Virar to Churchgate in morning for work but your family is never sure that you would return back Virar at night. There have been more than 7 attacks in India this year alone but not a single attack in US since 9/11 which happened seven years back. America has unique geographical advantage of being surrounded by Atlantic and Pacific oceans on both sides and no base of islam in whole of North America (Canada, US, Mexico) but that fortune is not shared by countries such as India.
These attacks were well planned and have achieved 100% success in causing damage to India's reputation and inspiring terrorist organizations from Albania to Afghanistan.
In all these attacks, ideological fanatics from Islamic world are involved. Time and again everyone has said that not all Muslims are extremists but incidents like this give bad name to 1.5 billion Muslims around the world. As Spiritual leader, Deepak Chopra rightly said, moderate Muslims have to do more than just condemning these attacks.
Indian Intelligence and Central and state governments are equally responsible for failure to get any clue on all the attacks including this one. They haven't busted a single attack till date. Because of appeasement politics, no party has shown guts to crack down on this Islamic fundamentalism. Various Islamic extremist organizations including SIMI continue to operate in India.
India is extremely complex and diverse society. It is difficult but not impossible to detain and destroy networks of these ill minded people. So what should be done now? Should we let this rescue operation over and forget these attacks as we have forgotten all other attacks? The answer is No. This time media should take this agenda of terrorism comprehensively and create a public opinion on terror. They should focus their stories on financing of these organizations. They should put pressure on Indian government to create strict Anti terrorism laws and form a Terror Intelligence body of constitutional structure.
Share your comments on what more can be done to bust these terror organizations?
Disclaimer: I have used Muslim and Islam words many a times in this post but I am in no way against any religion or faith including Islam.
Because of foreign hostages, Western media and Government are very much interested in knowing developments happening in India minute by minute.
These attacks have put Mumbai's name in mouth of common American who otherwise doesn’t care to know anything other than what's happening here in US. It's a great learning for western media of what India and Mumbai are. Their lack of knowledge was widely apparent in shows such as Larry King live and American Morning on CNN.
Attacks after attacks from Jaipur to Bangalore to Mumbai have become norm and India is becoming one of unsafe places in the world. You go from Virar to Churchgate in morning for work but your family is never sure that you would return back Virar at night. There have been more than 7 attacks in India this year alone but not a single attack in US since 9/11 which happened seven years back. America has unique geographical advantage of being surrounded by Atlantic and Pacific oceans on both sides and no base of islam in whole of North America (Canada, US, Mexico) but that fortune is not shared by countries such as India.
These attacks were well planned and have achieved 100% success in causing damage to India's reputation and inspiring terrorist organizations from Albania to Afghanistan.
In all these attacks, ideological fanatics from Islamic world are involved. Time and again everyone has said that not all Muslims are extremists but incidents like this give bad name to 1.5 billion Muslims around the world. As Spiritual leader, Deepak Chopra rightly said, moderate Muslims have to do more than just condemning these attacks.
Indian Intelligence and Central and state governments are equally responsible for failure to get any clue on all the attacks including this one. They haven't busted a single attack till date. Because of appeasement politics, no party has shown guts to crack down on this Islamic fundamentalism. Various Islamic extremist organizations including SIMI continue to operate in India.
India is extremely complex and diverse society. It is difficult but not impossible to detain and destroy networks of these ill minded people. So what should be done now? Should we let this rescue operation over and forget these attacks as we have forgotten all other attacks? The answer is No. This time media should take this agenda of terrorism comprehensively and create a public opinion on terror. They should focus their stories on financing of these organizations. They should put pressure on Indian government to create strict Anti terrorism laws and form a Terror Intelligence body of constitutional structure.
Share your comments on what more can be done to bust these terror organizations?
Disclaimer: I have used Muslim and Islam words many a times in this post but I am in no way against any religion or faith including Islam.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Meeting with Ashwin Madia
I have been following US presidential elections keenly for last 12 months. The D Day (Nov 4) is just 3
days away; Radio and TV are full of all sorts of Ads.
It was surprising to know that elections in US for all the public offices happen on a same day unlike in
India, where elections happen almost every day for numerous public offices from Gram Panchayat to Central
Parliament. This practice of regular elections is time consuming and resource intensive. It keeps politicians and
bureaucrats busy all the time in contesting and conducting elections. Development takes a back seat
and vote bank politics keeps all the executive and legislative constituents occupied with elections.
Former President APJ Abdul Kalam made a great suggestion for amending the Constitution and making
all the elections happen on same day. This would be huge boost for progressive and stable
governments. I am not sure why Indian media and intellectuals don't push for this idea.
What makes me write today was a surprise meeting with Ashwin Madia. He is a Democratic candidate
running for 3rd district in US Congress. He is another story of successes that American Indians had in
US. Indians went gaga after Bobby Jindal won elections for Governor of Katrina State of Louisiana.
It looks like it is Ashwin Madia's turn this time. With anti Bush sentiments giving strong lead to Obama,
Ashwin Madia is not far behind. Ashwin is young, highly educated and aa experienced Marines officer. However, His
opponent, Erik Paulsen is strong and experienced leader, which makes this fight tough for Madia.
Last week, my colleagues and I went to Culvers for lunch. While we were busy with lunch and usual office talks,
a man comes from behind and stood infront of our table.He said, "I am Ashwin Madia". I am
following him since he started his first Ad but never expected that I would meet him in person.
See his Ad:
As a natural Indian response, I stood up and greeted him while my colleagues were still sitting. I was
surprised and answered, Ya I have seen you on TV. My colleagues could not even recognize him. He
asked, Do you have any questions?, and I said, No, which ended our conversation. We shook hands
and he moved to other tables to meet other hungry voters.
I can never imagine that a politician comes and you don't stand to greet him in India. It was a
complete culture shock for me to see the response from my colleagues and lack of any such
expectation from Madia. Politicians don’t have a special status in US unlike in India where our
jansevaks and netas (public servants and politicians) consider themselves above the people.
This election is all about change; Can we ever have a change in India?
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