When I heard Shahrukh Moon Crater Khan tell us how humiliated he felt as the owner of the KKR at the treatment meted out to Pakistani players and more tellingly how Pakistan was a great neighbor to have, I could not resist doing my version of the dimple-cheeked, smile-to-the-side thing that turns women into moonshine and admire this man’s supreme business sense and his indefatigable desire to make money, if more proof was needed for that given his propensity for dancing at weddings.
SRK may be God and even bigger than him. But that still does not change that he is at a crossroad in his career, given the less than sterling box office of Billu and the failure of his TV avatar and of course the joke that his cricket franchise has become. To make matters worse, Padma Bhushan Aamir Khan has just delivered one of Indian film history’s biggest hits, (the equivalent of scoring 550 in 50 overs in the first innings of an ODI) and SRK, given his fiercely competitive streak, must be feeling the pressure even more. If there is any time when he has needed the support of every fan, and that includes a sizable number of Pakistanis in Pakistan and abroad, it is now just before ‘My Name is Khan’ hits the screen.
Of course dhanda hai yeh uska purana. Shahrukh Khan has always aggressively pursued the Pakistani and Bangladeshi audience by consistently filling his team with Pakistani stars and even with a supreme Bangladeshi dud, brought for an amount that makes even less sense than ‘Ramjaane’. The approach of cultivating foreign audiences has worked with less success in sports because unlike movies, where people enjoy all kinds of garbage as long as SRK shows his six-packs and monkeys around, in cricket you actually need to win some games so as to get ‘support’ and not be the butt end of jokes.
Some of you may ask—but does not pandering to Pakistan by calling them a “good neighbor”, an adjective as over-the-top as Shahrukh Khan’s performance in Chahat, risk alienating his fan-base in India, given Pakistan’s consistent acts of enmity that include letting the perpetrators of 26/11 walk free as heroes? Not quite. Most of the man’s fans in India could not care two hoots about his public pronouncements, just as they care two hoots for story and originality, as long as he does his SRK-ianisms. Secondly 26/11 is old news and even though people may have joined Major Unnikrishnan–the True Patriot Orkut group a year ago, they never really visited it being too busy with the interesting discussions under ‘Kajol SRK Cute jodieeeee’, too wrapped up in the intellectual cut thrust of Aamir vs SRK to be even mildly offended at SRK’s certificate of “goodness” for the kind neighbour whose consistent efforts have laid to rest many such true patriots.
Given everything— past history, the nature of the Pakistani and the Indian audience, his strategy of cultivating a South-Asian fan-base all driven by his own single-minded pursuit of money , what SRK said makes perfect sense. Which is why all it gets from me is the SRK-ian chuckle. However what makes me Madann Choppraa mad is when I find, in some bulletin boards, SRK’s religion being dragged into this, not only a simplistic and totally wrong explanation for his pronouncements but one that (and this is what makes me mad) mirrors exactly the kind of hateful rhetoric that our delightful neighbors delight in.
When wrong-footed Sohail Tanvir says “Hinduo ki zehniyat hi aisi hai” (Watch video from 4:21 to 4:23) I understand. Coming from Pakistan, where the education system packs them with lies about winning wars with India and equates Hindus with India and Muslims with Pakistan, I did not expect the man to say anything better. He sees the world through the exclusive prism of religion and that is understandable since it forms the very basis on which Pakistan was founded.
Not India. Exactly sixty years ago, our politicians created, through an amazing process of deliberation the details of which you must read in Ramachandra Guha’s “India After Gandhi”, the Indian constitution which among other things defined India not in terms of religion but in terms of nationality. It is this foundation on which our history of the last sixty years has been built, a history that has seen us, despite several missteps and catastrophes, arrive at a place noone expected us to be on January 26, 1950, when we were prophecied by one and all to collapse as a country, to become an eternal hell-hole plagued by internecine religious and caste-based feuds. There are many reasons why we have stayed together (and it would take a much longer article to even begin enumerating them) but one of the main contributory factors has been our constitution and the principles of secularism, much abused as it has been by each and every political party in India, that are enshrined in it.
We in India understand August 15th and its significance. It is the day we won independence from the British. It’s 26th January whose importance many of us have difficulty in wrapping our minds around.
Not to take away anything from the day or the efforts of our freedom fighters, but independence in a way, given the extant political climate at that time, was inevitable. If it was not in 1947 it would have been a few years later. As it was for many Asian and African countries.
However what was not inevitable was the continual perpetuation of the Indian democratic system, a system forged formally sixty years ago. Since most countries who became independent around the same time have not been able to sustain it in the same way as we have.
One only needs to look at our bestest neighbor and its inevitable collapse into warring provinces to see first-hand what would have happened if we had had no Republic Day. Because Pakistan, in the strict sense, does not. Well it did once upon a time on March 23rd which was a day chosen to co-incide with the date of the Lahore Resolution (1940) when the formal demand for Pakistan was articulated. When General Ayub Khan abrogated the constitution, March 23rd lost its “republic day” significance and has since been celebrated as the birth of the idea of Pakistan (Pakistan Day). Not that Pakistan does not have a constitution, but it is one that like the scripts of Shahrukh Khan movies are always re-written according to the whims of the reigning superstar with the express intent of giving him the most screen-time, story be damned.(As an aside, one of the public holidays in Pakistan is Defense Day, which is celebrated on the day Pakistan attacked India in 1965, encapsulating, as if it needs any more encapsulation, the way our good neighbors define themselves)
And as you lay back on the couch on January 26th, enjoying a public holiday and watching re-runs of “Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani” and “Oh Darling Yeh Hai India”, it might be worth the time between advertisements to salute those remarkable men who drafted that marvelous achievement of our greatest generation—our constitution—the BR Ambedkars, the Nehrus, the Patels, the Prasads, the B.N. Raus, the Hansa Mehtas and the S.N. Mukherjees.
By salute I dont mean “raise your diet coke in their honor” but endeavor to intellectually assimilate the principles on which the country was founded.
If that sounds very vague, just try not to think and sound like Sohail Tanvir. You owe it to these great men. And this great day.
{Keep discussion clean. Anything I find objectionable will be removed.}
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Two in a row! Yay! Time to read the post now lol
Missd it
Arnab, I think what Shahrukh said was right and I agree with you his intent would have been commercial, but the thing about keeping sports out of politics is bang on.
SRK…no wonder KKR is the worst team in IPL.May be they will win this time with no paki players
@Ajay Grover,
This is by the way not a question of sports and politics. A country which lionizes terrorists and keeps them outside on the streets—their national representatives should not be allowed to come and profit from our domestic league. Simple.
Well written, GB. India after Gandhi is a great book and needs to be made a compulsory read for history students.
Dear Arnab,
you make reading blogs a delight.If I can, I will defintely give a mighty slap to the owner of KKR that is different from the ones he takes on in his films.
who is s n mukherjee. do you mean shyama prasad mukherjee?
wonderfully put GB! one of the best posts on this blog.
i remember some great classical music icon (M. S. Sabbulakshmi?) saying that classical music is like an umbrella that covers our soul, protects us and helps us stay calm and composed, and we don’t realise it normally. i feel the same about the principles of indian democracy and our constitution.
why don’t you write more about our democracy and the implications of its principles in our individual daily live and the collective conscience of India?
S N Mukherjee was the chief draughtsman of the Constitution.
On target GB….
@Tejaswy, in that case he will tell, if we can win IPL without Pak players, we wil win Champions trophy b4 it starts!
A reminder that we all need. We constantly need to remind ourselves, as a society, that hatred be limited to Paksitan and not to a community. Hate is a strong word, but Pakistan deserves it until they get their act together and cooperate on some levels and in the meantime we need to remind ourselves. Pakistan != Muslims
Actually I haven’t read the constitution and am unware of most of the laws of the state , i dont know much about my rights , i dont know how to question those people who I know doing wrong, but hey I also enjoy my smirnoff (music CD’s)
So what exactly happened at the IPL auctions then? Chidambaram also thinks sports was done a disservice by not bidding for Pakistan players (http://www.cricinfo.com/ipl2010/content/current/story/445795.html). Who did this then?
Superb stuff. Respect.
In this light, might I also talk of an oft-repeated lament – ‘what have we achieved in 50 years’? (this lament became more popular around 1997).
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60 years is a much too small time for a democracy to flourish. 60 years or so after American Independence, the country was on the verge of civil war. The Americans learnt democracy by its alphabet, so it isn’t a fair comparison with India. However, a point certainly worth making is what Arnab said – many countries which born around the same time have not been able to sustain as we have. In some sense, India is like Europe without the two world wars. There is discord, even secessionist movements, but not to a point that shakes the very fabric of the nation. (Though I do worry about Naxalite movements now)
==
Our freedom movement was in some sense a momentous achievement in world history – a largely illiterate, uninformed and hitherto meek population led by a few educated ones, all united by a common purpose. After freedom, partition and all the pain that came as a part of it, that unifying purpose was lost.
Our constitution, if anyone has bothered to open and read it, is an achievement, laying down the foundation of not merely a nation, but the dream of carving out a fair society from the largely illiterate populace now left without a unifying aim. There were all the seeds of conflict and disintegration, and it’s somewhat of a wonder that we are still one nation. The makers of the constitution knew the dream would be hard to realize, and the subsequent decades certainly didn’t see that aim being realized in any satisfying measure. And yet, we have come a long way.
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You would often need to go only one generation back to see that, stories that would be common to millions of us – My parents went with a single uniform and without footwear throughout their schooling, started working at 18, and paid for their own further education; I spent a comfortable childhood, went to one of the best colleges in India and have opportunities at my doorstep today that were unthinkable twenty years ago.
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One other lingering comparison is that with China. I meet and interact with many different Chinese people in the course of my daily routine. It will take a much longer comment to contain my impressions of China, suffice to say that I am deeply grateful I was born in a democracy and in India.
Arnab, I’d love to see that longer post you did not write today, perhaps a book on it too – by you or somebody else.
Great article from the Great Bong!
I was infuriated by [edited] Sohail Tanvir’s statement, but after reading your blog found peace.
Long live our Republic!
Keep up the gud work brother!
Jai Hind!
Hi Arnab/Greatbong
It’s been happening far too often recently that I put your post on facebook with a comment, “This man is a genius”. I need new adjectives now! Your views, your sarcasm and ideas are just too perfect, in my honest opinion.
Also, in one of the replies to a comment in the last post you said that you are not an intellectual in the sense of the meaning that’s come to it in Indian context today. I felt extremely happy at that reply of your. We need more platforms and channels for real intellectuals like you to express your views in the logically sound way that you do.
Also, if I missed it, this post is truly wonderful. Even the not-so-nationalistic would feel something for our amazing country after reading stuff like this one.
Excellent. An eye opener. Not many realize the significance of this important day or its contribution to the life we enjoy today. Most consider it a holiday,an excuse to sleep late.
The younger generation needs to be made aware of the significance of our Republic day and this post sure is a shot in the right direction.
Just as I said earlier , I seem to be in a huge crowded boat
If he is so humiliated, why didn’t he bid for one himself. Simple!
Some random points:
1) Look at how the blacks were welcomed and cheered on in sports during the 1960’s and 70’s whilst at the same time oppression and racism were rampant in society at large in America. Sports and politics can be kept separate, if needed.
2) Bryan Adams is unpopular in many parts of the US even today all because he refused to compose the OST for Top Gun saying the film glorified war. Different countries have diff ways of showing patriotism, and to be honest SRK is real lucky to be a superstar in India. ( I think the American response isnt all that unjustified).
3) When SRK talks about “love” between Ind-Pak, i find it hard to digest. Love doesnt involve your soldiers mutilating my soldiers’ bodies and it certainly doesnt involve 10 of your citizens butchering 180 in my city.
4) In the next 60, lets talk a little less about Pakistan, and shift the focus to China. Coz folks, China is where the future lies. Their going to be a superpower 10 yrs from now for sure. If you keep comparing yourself to the kid at the bottom of the class, ie PAK, you dont improve. Compare yourself to the kid who tops, ie China, and atleast you’ve set your standards high enough.
Superb post!
Superb post! Lot of new dimensions and points worth thinking about.
Just as a side note, maybe you should put a link to the Andaman story about your grandfather. We owe it to those men and women, who suffered hardships to bring the country to this stage and make our future brighter.
A agree with you that given that European powers left a lot of countries by default after World War 2, independence was inevitable. What is also important and more apt on Republic Day, is the post-independence effort of uniting the princely states – work also done by some unsung diplomats – to make a united India and not a conglomeration of small kingdoms .
Lastly, I personally feel that SRK’s ‘My name is Khan’ stunt at the US airport was in completely bad taste – I think the both the US and India would do without use of such statements which are detrimental to communal harmony be it in the smallest of forms.
Very well written post. But we also must not forget the contribution of million others who have not been mentioned in the history book. There’s this chapter in the Hindi textbook for X class just about this.
LOL at
Very nice Indeed !! would like more of similar stuff .. I(like most other people) need ‘better’ historical education so that we can appreciate our democratic setup in a much better way.
Yes, there are times where this implementation of our democracy(I come to the brink of calling it “pseudo-democracy” like so many fools on TV) does seem so hollow BUT what we also tend to ignore are its multiple facets(most of the which are positive).
The way this system has kept our Country United inspite of so many real threats(like Separatist movements of South India(Tamilnadu), North India(Khalistan), North-East(Nagaland), and always on-the-edge Kashmir problem) etc.
We, the generation born in late seventies and eighties, take for granted the Freedom of India and forget the facts like there was a time when the unity of Country was at risk by a dispute on Language(it seems so trivial now and childish now).
The Indo-China war was in a way an eye opener for Indian People, when they heard the footsteps of a foreign army on their motherland once again.(exactly after which Mr. C. N. Annadurai withdrew his demand in favor of a United India). That feeling of natinalism and patritism (INDIA FIRST) was re-instated.(and the constitution was amended to remove the “Secessionist Clause”).
and as pointed out by GB, The success becomes so apparent once you start comparing it with our neighboring Country. (The first Army Coup was ‘attempted’ in 1951. WTF, within 4 years !!! and what followed was complete anarchy (especially after 1957 Coup). They tried so many times to get a constitution for themselves but the Mullah Power failed them every time.
Actually, the Europe always gets surprised with the fact how South-Asia could sustain such big Countries with so many internal conflicts where as they themselves have been fragmented and divided (some countries are even smaller than Kerala).
The list of Naysayers was big but what proved them wrong was our Democracy, Our Constitution, Our REPUBLIC DAY. I salute the Real Men once again.
PS: btw, Thanks GB for suggesting my next book, read about it many a times, now confirmed by your recommendation.
We can no longer buy the theory that, pakistanis in general are peace/aman loving people who like peace with India it is just the politicians of pak who are cementing hate, fact of the matter is that people of Pakistan are deeply jealous of India and hate the idol worshippers period. There are 3 ways to look at the Pakistan angle;
1) People to people contact and create brotherly love–Aman ke asha kinda..
2) Ignore everything about Pakistan
3) Make life tough of Pakistan because so long as we do not retaliate they will keep training millions of Kasabs
I think after 26/11 point 1 is out of question, 2 can be seen by jihadis and generals as sign of weakness and 3 will entangle us deep in south asia thereby we cannot engage more on world stage.
Brilliant post. Thanks for encapsulating so pithily without any overt patriotic rhetoric the importance of this day. So often we forget that the idea of India was an abstract thought that could have been so easily lost and it is the constitution that reminds us what we are and where we stand. Happy Republic Day 🙂
Great post GB.
I’m maybe a little uninformed here, but why didn’t Shahrukh buy a Pakistani player himself; if he finds it so humiliating that not even one found a place in IPL?
Since Shahrukh Khan’s view does not match yours, he must be doing all this for money. Some reasoning Arnab!!
I apologize for my earlier post. That was an unnecessarily unkind, logically incoherent but scathing statement about your post. Same as this entire post of yours is. Unkind, incoherent (in parts) and scathing.
What kind of reasoning is this Arnab? May be Shahrukh is indeed giving the statement for profiting in his next film, MAY BE NOT. How are YOU so sure of it? What if he really feels what he says? What if he had no ulterior motive in giving his statement? Have you ever thought of that non-zero finite proabability? Or is it some circumstantial reasoning of Satyanveshi Arnab Bakshi that I am missing here?
If we wanted to keep Pakistanis out of India due to lionization of terrorists, the correct action would have been to ask their cricketers to stay away from the auction (This is the same line rational-greatbong took in the earlier Thappad post). Inviting somebody and then humiliating them is not good. No matter how many 26th Novembers happen. No matter how rational or irrational you are.
one of your best posts!
Yeah. We are greatful to have borne in a democracy despite all its flaws… It was possible for Nehru to be become a dictator easily. But fortunately for us he chose the right path. Long live India. Long live democracy !!
Bang on GB…our democracy is the most precious and at the same time most abused treasure we have.
1) Seems as if his marketing strategies are working. His team is apparently the most popular in the IPl and its value has risen by 41%. Source:http://sports.in.msn.com/cricket/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3198708&page=0
2) His team could have bid for one of the Pakistani players if he wanted to. Why didn’t he? And how does he expect the Pakistani public to believe a statement that is not in line with his actions?
3) The decision to exclude Pakistani players from the IPL was an entirely rational one on the part of the franchisees. One more terrorist attack and the players from pakistan would’ve had to go back home. Why would anybody take a risk like that?
Good post, GB. Incisive and measured, as always.
Having noted this, though, it is is instructive that of the former british colonies in south/south east asia (from iran to Burma, and including Sri Lanka), India is the only secular functioning democracy, however flawed and chaotic it may be. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran: all theocracies. Sri Lanka (Buddhism accorded “foremost place”, but not a state religion).
Myanmar is pretty secular in its oppression of all religions, therawada buddhism fares slightly better, but even there there are schisms.
in this context, the situation (and plight) of India is significant, and must be a learning curve to us all in the region. With religious, racial and economic bigotry across the world (and this region) on the rise, it sometimes makes me wonder whther it is prejudice that is the normal position, and whther tolerance is really not a natural virtue.
SRK obsession again. Man you must be so freakin envious of him. This from a person who wrote about ‘reasonable doubt’ in one of his recent posts…but what can one expect from someone who embraced 3 idiots so wholeheartedly.
Arnab, aren’t you doing the same thing you are accusing SRK off. I mean you have become predictable now.
But am sure in a land that considers 3 Idiots to be some kind of superior cinema…it’s no surprise Arnab Ray is also a superstar in his own right.
BTW, I am not against or for SRK or Aamir…but just the general trend in your posts these days makes me wonder if you are the same person who wrote such humorous posts long long time ago. Like someone who commeneted in one of your previous posts…there are lots of other places one can go for serious discussion oof subjects of topical interests…you should stick to your forte (or was)..humour.
Cheers,
Rahul
..and if SRK is doing it to make his movie successful…is it wrong?
I mean you have been plugging your book thru all the channels at your behest…maybe, just maybe SRK can sell a lil more than you…so what?
If people are willing to pay him to dance at wedding…what’s your grouse…why don’t you try it too, am sure there will be ppl willing to pay money to see you dance or do whatever else you accuse others of.
Just, please don’t adopt the sanctimonious tone..it does not suit you. You are neither balanced in your views nor do you have anything really new to add.
And please…I blv as someone noted KKR still makes more money than other clubs and it is I blv because of SRK…and contrary to what you say in India ppl follow ‘International cricket in which India plays’ irrespective of them winning or not. Also..using religion to foster ill will is not just a Muslim/Pakistan monopoly.
Cheers,
Rahul
Way to go GB…as stated above..incisive and measured! Can someone post this on SRK’s twitter page..I would have if I had an account.This is one of those articles that he should read.
One Qn though – whats the problem with Parnell claiming that Nehra was an inspiration (mentioned in the last post)? Anyone esp a left arm seamer who has seen Nehra’s 6 wickets in the world cup 2003 is bound get inspired.
GB – a must read – no its not my blog..but he has written somethign interesting you can share…
Aman Ka Tamaasha on
http://prakashgowda.wordpress.com/
“Have you ever thought of that non-zero finite proabability?”
Have you ever thought of the near 100% probability that if his concern for Pakistani players was genuine and this statement was not merely posturing, he would have, umm, I don’t know, maybe picked up a couple of their players himself? I was under the impression that he owns a whole team in the IPL.
The indian constitution is also being amended too many times in my opinion, we cannot boast that it is not being done to satisfy the whims and fancies of the ruling party.
Arnab da,
Much respect. Couldn’t agree more with you.
The best way to deal with your enemy is to refuse to become like him.
We were, are and will forever remain the SOVEREIGN, SOCIALIST, SECULAR, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC of INDIA.
Jai Hind.
@Suhas,
As a team owner, it would have been a great risk for SRK to pick some Pakistani up and later not being able to play him due to foreign-affair-problem or another-attack. I think the point is inviting Pakis in the first place for IPL auction, when it was reasonably certain that none of them would be picked up.
My comment is intended to raise an objection against Arnab’s reasoning where he took the worst possibility (regarding SRK’s intent) as the only one.
“As a team owner, it would have been a great risk for SRK to pick some Pakistani up and later not being able to play him”
The same logic was applied by all team owners and they reached the same decision that SRK did, of not taking the Pakistani players. SRK and the rest of the owners were on the same page.
What the rest of the team owners didn’t do though, was to play the holier-than-thou game afterward for the benefit of the cameras with statements like “I think its actually humiliating to me as a KKR owner that this has happened…I truly believe that they should have been chosen.”
I’d say Arnab’s blog has actually NOT taken the worst possibility. Saying SRK acted out of pure self-interest is not as damning and scathing as saying (as many are) that he did it on religious grounds.
Arnab,
One thing I fail to understand. If SRK feels it was a humiliating not to pick Pakistani players, I fail to understand WHAT STOPPED SRK FROM HIRING ANY OF THEM? Am I missing something here? Can someone explain it… Pls.?
And… Pak has been a great neighbour? If SRK’s neighbour keeps beating SRKs kids, sh*ttin in his yard, throw fireworks in his family room and send his teenagers to peep into his bedroom will he still call his neighbour great?
Dude, you are omniscient. I spilled my Diet Coke!
SRK certainly deserves some Kasab-style Paki loving. You can bet your bottom INR that this Mumbaiah will be in the stadium in the MI v/s KKK-KKR match. I will be surprised if SRK escapes without an earful.
Awesome post. The difference between a Nation based on religion and a Nation based on nationalism and how it shapes the individual and their outlook is very well captured in this post. Thanks.
I think an indepth study of the constitution should be made compulsory for all courses in india. ALL courses. Im talking both high school and graduation. We can never fully understand our country if we dont know our constitution, and understand its signifiance. Its the very foundation of our beautiful country, and its sad that we learn about it when we dont really care. In class 6. While many courses make it a part of their syllabus, it still doesnt get the importance it deserves.
I have seen your posts reflecting your tag line “Disgruntled movie fanatic,wannabe politician”, I am waiting to see the tranquil cosmic citizen..
If life is taken too seriously it becomes preachy, Jai Hind.
A great post GB. Indeed our “founding fathers” did a wonderful job of writing the constitution which, like fevicol, has held us together for so long.
This, in spite of amendments to the “absolute” fundamental rights by Mrs.Gandhi, which put the kind of exceptions into basic rights like free speech which cause the “I am offended” syndrome across the nation.
But the constitution did provide a great judicial system too which could put a stop to this erosion and chipping away, it is a pity, it could not reverse the changes.
All the people complaining about their not knowing the details, I wonder what they were doing in civics class in school. This was the exact aim of civics. The aim of a primary education is to create an informed electorate, and that is where we as a nation have not done so well.
Almost every “expert” in the world 60 years ago predicted that India won’t last more than decade as a nation, we were too diverse for that. Guess we were lucky to have some very astute leader when we became independent, almost every other nation of that time fell to tin pot dictatorship.
Very thoughtful post by GB. It’s been an eventful 60 years so far! An achievement we Indians can all be proud of. But what is it with all the talented people in Bollywood? Why do they screw up their filmi careers by making stupid moves? It makes me sad to see that the secular pin-up boy of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, appears to be headed the same way as his idol, veteran actor Dilip Kumar and the amazing singer Mohammad Rafi.
1) First, Yusuf Khan (a.k.a. “Dilip Kumar”). Even though his screen-name change reflected Yusuf Khan’s initial apprehensions about succeeding in a traumatized, post-partition India, the fact remains that his fears were baseless. Peshawar-born Yusuf Khan enjoyed a very successful career without facing any malice from millions of his Hindu fans. In my own family, my father and uncles still continue to a BIG fan of his acting skills. Yet when Yusuf Khan’s acting career went south, this amazingly talented actor started becoming a religious fanatic, beginning every speech and peppering it with passionate, religiously-charged homilies in Arabic and frequent references to Allah specifically (not God, Almighty, Uparwaala or something more generic). You can find several such videos on YouTube.
2) When singer Mohammad Rafi started his career, he sang some beautiful bhajans in his golden, mellifluous voice for movies. When Mohammad Rafi was at the peak of his “playback-singer” career, he went to Mecca for Haj. When Mohammad Rafi returned from Haj, he was a changed man. Rafi’s religious views had hardened and he refused to sing in Hindi movies thereafter. When asked the reason for this abrupt U-turn, Rafi replied: “Music is Haraam (illegitimate) in Islam.” Rafi refused to sing for several months. But soon Rafi realized that without any income and no education, he could not feed his large family i.e. his wife (Bashira), 7 children (Saeed Rafi, Khalid Rafi, Hamid Rafi, Shahid Rafi, Parveen, Nasreen, Yasmin), 18 grandchildren and other indigent relatives from his extended family, who were financially dependent on him for generous handouts. Also, when Rafi abruptly vacated the center-stage thus, he lost more ground to other singers and was in the danger of disappearing from the limelight altogether. The multi-talented genius Kishore Kumar (my favourite singer) became the undisputed king among playback-singers. So, a worried Rafi was forced to return to singing, much against his religious beliefs. This unfortunate fact is acknowledged in well-known websites dedicated to Mohammed Rafi by his Indian and Pakistani fans (including mohdrafi[dot].com and javidraza[dot].com)
3) These days, in several interviews and award ceremonies, Shah Rukh Khan’s frequent religious references to Allah, Islam and Muslims are becoming common. These communal utterances are unfortunate and are making him look as though SRK prefers to be known in history only as a Muslim actor, not as a secular Indian actor loved by millions of Hindus and Christians. For his own good, SRK should stop appealing to narrow communal sentiments. It won’t do his career any good, nor will it help India in any way. Who knows? Maybe, at this point, he doesn’t care much for either.
History repeats itself, sadly but surely. And ultimately, India will be the loser.
Will all due respect to his capabilities and credentials as an actor (if what he does on screen really qualifies as acting).. I must say that he has become a retard now…
..and this int’w and all others like this is just a lame effort to rke some hype and controversy ahead of his upcoming movie “My Name Is Khan”..
I am sure the movie will fall flat on its face.. as is evident from its promos..
greatbong
“Not quite. Most of the man’s fans in India could not care two hoots about his public pronouncements, just as they care two hoots for story and originality, as long as he does his SRK-ianisms”.
if nobody give SRK two hoots then why a new post. and pls stop this SRK bashing i know this is your personnal blog and everybody has thier likes and dislikes. but may i dare to say whenever you write about people you dislike you make many assumption and unilatral opinions about them just like arundhati roy (both of you are blessed with very good writing skill) but both of you are so biased in your opinion. and what is this thing about Aamir khan and 3 idiot. i know many of SRK haters are overjoyed that this time aamir beat SRK in box office but write down one thing nobody can snacth SRK 2 dacade stardom in bollywood and if anyone wrote a history of bollywood of the last 60 years as far as heroes are concerned there will be Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan and SRK.
@DJ,
Since you have difficulty understanding this, let me make it clear.
“Not quite. Most of the man’s fans in India could not care two hoots about his public pronouncements, just as they care two hoots for story and originality, as long as he does his SRK-ianisms
This means that most fan-zombies do not care if SRK certifies Pakistan as a good neighbor, because they will go to watch his movies regardless. Personally I care two hoots for SRK’s acting, the fate of his movies and for him as a person. I do however care for people like Major Unnikrishnan who fell defending his country, a country that includes people like SRK, from the machinations of those SRK considers to be the best neighbor to have. Hence the post.
Brilliant post. Nuff said.
SRK’s comment is a cynical one and has nothing to do with him being a Muslim. It is basically a cop-out. He is a businessman through and through. It is simple for him to see that taking on Pak players just fails a cost-benefit analysis. Dragging his religion into this betrays our freedoms of religion and speech and turns us into Sohail Tanvirs.
ok we both agree to disagree but again how you assue that fans of SRK don’t care about maj S unnikrisnan or havaldar gajendra singh (i am only talking about the martayers of 26/11 since i notice for you and most of the person who comment here for them the terrorist attack on india = 26/11)but belive me what SRK said about insulting pak player is right. most people i mean rational are saying same thing from the players to home minister PC and i do hope there is no commercial angle in it, and i am sure if anybody ask about this to mr perfectionist khan the answer might be same. but i also want to say like you i too belive that there should not a pak player in IPL but my main problem is the way the IPL board handle the whole issue. as far as SRK’s second comment “pak is our best neighbor”. i am 200% disagree on that buy again you have to live with this neighbor as someone says you countries can change its friends but not neighbor. so in these circumtances if a person like SRK make a rhethrotic comment about pak i belive it doesn’t serve any perpose in fact it might be get negative effect because as you said yourself that “Personally I care two hoots for SRK’s acting, the fate of his movies and for him as a person” (looks like you are a fan of gone with the wind and clark gamble who said frankly dear, i don’t give a damn)but there are many people who give SRK’s statement a damn.
Yeh Clark Gamble kaun hai? Procter And Gamble ka Gamble?
SRK: “”I think its actually humiliating to me as a KKR owner that this has happened. We are known to be good, we are known to invite everyone, and we should have. And if there were any issues, they should have been put out earlier so that everything could happen respectfully,” he said.
**Humiliated! About what? That other franchise owners exercised their choices, which did not include Pakistani players, which collectively meant that none of their players were available. Who begged to be a part of the auction, Mr. SRK?
SRK: “”I truly believe that they should have been chosen. As a matter of fact, I’m not going to be the one who is opposite from what everyone else is saying but I wanted Abdul Razzaq. I think it was in the newspapers much earlier than even the auction started. Dada (Sourav Ganguly) was very keen,” he added.
** There he gave it away. He, by his own admission, will “not going to be the one who is opposite from what everyone else is saying”. Ok! So that explains his humiliation. Shame Shame!
SRK: “”There is going to be a section of people who have suddenly gotten up and have said, rightly or wrongly, ‘ Australians will not be allowed to play’. So here is a set of people who are spending up to 70, 80, 90 crore rupees on trying to win a tournament and suddenly, even if you say this much to me, I’m like ‘uh-oh, so should I take or shouldn’t I take him?'”
“So tomorrow, if we had known this, maybe even the Australians would not have been picked up. These issues always come prime on your head, the stakes are very high,” he said.”
**’Picked up’. Aha! Love that line. SRK ‘picking up’ exotic athletic cricketers from other countries. What a sight that would be! So he does not know that no Australian cricketer was ‘picked up’? What exactly does he imply? I am confused. He framed that sentence like a second grader. Uh oh!
SRK: “”I am not giving an excuse and I truly believe Pakistani players are the best T20 players in the world. They are the champions. They are wonderful. But somewhere down the line there is an issue and we cannot deny it. There is an issue, we cannot keep saying ‘Oh this was wrong’. Yes maybe the way it was done was wrong, the way it is being carried out may be wrong. But you can’t keep on saying ‘Koi issue nahi hai yaar, woh aa jate’ (There isn’t any issue, they could have come). There is an issue lets not deny it. Every day we blame Pakistan, everyday they blame us, it is an issue,” he added.
** So even he admits that there is an issue. Hello, people above who are trying to accuse GB of being a SRK hater, May I hebb your attension pliss? Did you read that line? Did you? Did you?
“But somewhere down the line there is an issue and we cannot deny it. There is an issue, we cannot keep saying ‘Oh this was wrong’. Yes maybe the way it was done was wrong, the way it is being carried out may be wrong. But you can’t keep on saying ‘Koi issue nahi hai yaar, woh aa jate’ (There isn’t any issue, they could have come). There is an issue lets not deny it.”
Then he gave a neat twist to the issue. ” Every day we blame Pakistan, everyday they blame us, it is an issue.” Oh!!!! I did not know that. That is an issue. Seriously. You blame me, I blame you, then we do drama, then we make love. Kkkk-kiran.
As cheesy and vacuous as some of his movie lines.
SRK: “”I have also had the opposite of this. When my team had 5 Pakistani players in the first year, there were people saying ‘Aap ke pass bahut sare Pakistani players hain’ (You have too many Pak players). I still have Wasim Bhai coaching my team. Come on man, sports should be left alone.”
No no. The sports of other franchises should be left alone. They do not have to leave alone sports and politics the way you do, or feel humiliated. Basically, if you add the pieces together so far, what he is saying is that as the owner of the franchise with the maximum number of Paki players, he feels humiliated that why other franchises did not add to their tally of Pakistan players!!! Amazing!!! And by the way, the other franchises did the sensible thing. There are plenty of good T20 players. There are players like Kieron Pollard etc. T20 does not just have to be Umar Akmal.
** “”I think before we react to any of these incidents, we should hold back and say ‘yeah there is an issue, both sides have a point, so lets keep it easy’. I, my family is from Pakistan. My father was born there and his family was from there. Can we just circumvent all that is said about India and Pakistan by the politicians, by anybody else and say ‘it’s a great neighbour to have, we’re great neighbours, they’re great neigbours, so lets just love each other’. I think all these issues really need to be out,” SRK said.”
I mean, honestly, he is a retard and speaking out his ass there. Its futile to comb thru his thread of logic there. Prannoy Roy actually said that what he said was articulate. If that is articulate, then I would like to burn all the good books I have read in my life. Right now. So my father is from there. You have issues. I have issues. 2 people with issues should hug and kiss, keep politics and sports alone.Umm. Well my father is from Bangladesh, erstwhile East Pakistan. I feel deeply humiliated by Sakib-Al-Hasan not being ‘picked-up’. Yes, there are some serious issues involved here.!!! Pleaseeeee. I mean, has there been any other analysis on this issue, which has been so tangential, playing-to-the-gallery and inarticulate?
By the way, great post! Happy R- Day!
@anonymous
Yeh Clark Gamble kaun hai? Procter And Gamble ka Gamble?
yaar, galti se mistake ho jaati hai. my girlfriend’s name starts from ‘M’ that’s whe there is a ‘M’ in clark gable
Hey:
The chick (Farah) on youtube clip is good 🙂
GB:”This is by the way not a question of sports and politics. A country which lionizes terrorists and keeps them outside on the streets—their national representatives should not be allowed to come and profit from our domestic league. Simple.
Actually this whole shitstorm has several lessons. This IPL exclusion, has in a way, driven home to the Pakis that they are a terrorist nation. You would have seen, from the tone of their media, after the Mumbai attacks, that they were still in denial, and coninued to play the blame game. But a few cases of isolation, the WC being taken away from them, and now this, has really given them a tight slap. Look at the way this issue has been felt across Pakistan. For everyone from Miandad, to the average moron on their street, has felt the sting of someone like Afridi’s exclusion. And yet, the intent was not so. 🙂 That is what makes this all so funny. If you go thru chronologically, after the attacks, their govt told them, “You dont go to India for IPL2”. Eventually IPL 2 was shifted to SA, and rightfully, Modi, did not go out his way to beg the Pak govt to ask for Paki players in IPL2. I am sure that SRK would have done this. People following news tidbits would have also noticed that NOC deadline that Modi asked from the Pakistani govt, way back sometime in 2009. So when he did not get assurances, he said that no Pak players will play in IPL 3, this time in India. Now their govt, if one can call them that, suddenly had a change of heart, and thought that touring India, one year later, is no more unsafe. But in the meanwhile, the franchises had geared up for other players. They also had to keep in mind the uncertainty of Pakistan players and the issue of security around them. So they did the very rational and sensible thing by not including the Pakistani players, who like money hungry dogs, made an 11th hour entry to the auction field thru barbed wire fences. And then they claimed, “Hey hey, we are in here, so you should take us!!!” Boo Freaking Hoo. This was not a dinner invitation! This was not turning guests away!!! This was an auction. So lets say I am a painter. If my work of art is put up for an auction, and it doesnt get sold, should I go pointing fingers? Am I saying that there was no political issue involved here? Sure there was. Sure. But not as much as you thing. Part of it was just a denouement of regular course of events. (Read the Pakistani bloggers blog at Dawn that I posted in the previous post).
Also take the ‘issues’, as SRK would say. There has been a massive attack on our country in the not too distant past. This kind of attack prompted USA to wage 2 wars. We are just distancing ourselves. Let us talk about the World Cup. When the SL team was in Pakistan, there was a massive attack. After that no team wanted to play in Pakistan. Is that not a sensible decision? Hence, the right to host the World Cup was taken from them. Teams like Australia played them at neutral places like Dubai. And yet, those sons of bitches, those curs, those motherfucking swines like J. Miandad and others, pointed the finger at India and only India alone. The BCCI has too much power…they did politicking and blah blah blah. Now if I was someone in the BCCI, let me tell you, I would have taken serious umbrage to this kind of allegations. Do not forget, this tournament that you are dying to see your players play in, is a BCCI show.
So it all boils down to a trade-union type of mentality. Also, Sohail Tanvir’s comment is a social psychologist’s gem. As pointed out many time across various comments threads like Hujur, Bengal Voice, HHBB and the great Rishi, there is a mentality of certain Pakistanis to perceive themselves as coming from a higher race, that we are somehow inferior to them. At that time, many people dismissed those comments. But what does this guy’s comment tell you? Strangely, Pakistan, despite all its denial, looks at India as a benchmark. Be it culture or sports, they are just obsessed with us. And yet, there is a side to them, that hates us and our identity. That is counter-intuitive, given our similarities in culture, food etc., but that is the way it is. So to all you guys who are forming Asha Aman clubs, you guys are just ignoring ground realities. Thankfully, as this article points out, India does not have Pakistan as a benchmark and hence, has a much prosperous future than that failed state.
And to Sohail Tanveer, all I can say is that, you are a fool. 🙂 An idiot, a degenerate, a bigot and a moron! You have just significantly reduced your odds of playing in the IPL ever again. 🙂 By the way, where are those people who were shouting on the rooftops about keeping politics and sports separate? Come out of the woodworks! Now! Have you say to Sohail Tanveer about the mantra that you preach, repeatedly like a broken record, irrespective of the context. Cmon! Ufff. The silence is deafening. So the joy that millions of Indians are having at the Paki reaction is not at the snub itself. They are having joy at the kind of reaction it exuded, about 1000 time more than the nonchalant indifference after the 26-11 allegations.
To add as a footnote, there comes a point of time in growth, when you care more about your country and your own welfare. We have had enough of toe-to-toe competition, stone throwing and aman ashas. We will just keep out goddamn doors shut, and look into our welfare and security. No collaborations. None. You want to cut off ties. Please do so. It is so effective when dealing with this kind of assholes. Not a sniper rifle, not a grenade, not a fighter jet. No no no no. Just benign neglect. So effective. Dealing with Pakistan, as IPL has shown is an artform. A goddamn artform!!!
As far as SRK is concerned, India is only useful to him for making crores (of rupees), copulating and crapping (on the land that feeds him). He has a lot of love for Paikhana-stan which has given him nothing.
If SRK is so much in love with Paikhana-stan, dare I suggest he visit his ancestral city (Peshab-ar) and have a holiday there for a few months every year (amidst daily suicide-bombings, routine beheadings and a stringent ban on movies, music and dancing).
P.S: Serious question !!! With no movies, music or dancing at weddings permitted in Peshawar, how is SRK going to make money in Paikhana-stan?
Amit @ Indiauncut put it nicely, “As for the anger in Pakistan about their players not playing in the IPL, it is entirely justified. But it should be directed at the Lashkar, not at the IPL franchises.”
Unlike the self-congratulatory laddoos that we offer after conducting a poojas, today is indeed a day to congratulate those men who laid the foundations for our nation. Let us not compare ourselves to oppressive nations like China on purely material grounds. The aim of India has always been freedom (mukti) – not just political, but social, economic, and mental.
Where the mind is without fear and the head held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
by Rabindranath Tagore
A hundred Chinas could not produce one single Mithunda. Let that be proclaimed to the world.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Ticked-off-by-PC–Modi-hints-Pak-players-may-play-IPL/571986
Well well well What do you know…. Paki players may after all get to play the IPL….
If they have any sense of pride and self respect they will stay out of IPL After the initial Snub….but lets face it, They are pakis.
I wonder how Sohail Tanvir will feel now….and what team will take him ???
KKR ….Of course..!!!!! SRK’s Love for pakis
“Sohail Tanvir too said he was ready to play in the IPL if invited. “I have nothing personal against India and if any opportunity arises in future where I am invited to play in the IPL or Champions League, I will definitely go to play if my seniors do the same,” Tanvir said. “I will do whatever my seniors tell me to do or go by the guidelines provided by the Pakistan Cricket Board.”
Shameless [edited] !!!!
Afridi: “”If I was invited to play in India again I would do so happily. They have great fans and great stadiums and I have many friends there. Although Pakistan and India have borders, these borders cannot divide humanity,” said Afridi.
Uffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff. In am crying now. Let us do this litmus test. Give him a salary of 10000 USD and lets see how he reacts. :)))
Borders cannot divide humanity. But money can make people like Sohail Tanveer to lick Hindu asses again.
Its basic economics. If they are so desperate to play, when the IPL can very well go on without them, IPL is in a bargaining position to reduce their prices. Hence their wages should be low, not Kieron Pollard high.
““Sport should be used to build peace between our great nations, not break them.”
Noble though. But as we have seen time and again, it has no effect on anything. We started playing sports with them and played lotsa matches in the last decade. The result- a devastating attack on Mumbai. So there is no effect of one on another. Pure bs.
The IE report:
“A day after Home Minister P Chidambaram criticised Indian Premier League organisers for doing a “disservice to cricket” by not including Pakistani players, IPL chief Lalit Modi said cricketers from across the border still had a chance to be part of the Twenty20 event.
“Some teams have still not finished their quota of players and some players could drop out, franchises can choose Pakistani players as replacements or fill vacancies,” Modi told CNN-IBN. He rejected allegations of mishandling the matter.
“I don’t think there’s any mishandling, the franchises decide on their own. We never said in the first place that the government in any which way nudged us in that direction. It was a decision that was taken by the franchises and let us leave it at that,” he said.
A top official of the Kolkata Knight Riders told The Indian Express that the transfer window had shut but if a special window was opened for Pakistan players, the KKR would consider it. ”
—————————————-
Well Modi has been consistent throughout. I admire him for that. Never did he say that Paki players have been deliberately excluded. And there is no proof that he did make that statement under pressure. But look at which franchise went above and beyond to open that “special window”. Looks like that existing roster of Paki players is hardly enough. :)))))))))))))))))))))))
If SRK can pull that stunt off, that is add that 6th Paki player to his existing roster, thru that “Special window” (tell you what, dirty thought are already creeping into my mind 🙂 ), then his place in that country as the second most important man ever after M. Jinnah is assured. Also assured is infinite sales of DVDs of his past, present and future movies and box office sales which will surely topple Avatar.
good one mate!
yes SRK has a good sense of business…
Who knows, if SRK takes a Paki player and there is no attack for the next year, he may get the Nobel Peace Prize!
Afridi: “They have great fans and great stadiums and I have many friends there.” 🙂 Yeah an great money too!
http://www.anandabazar.com/26khela1.htm
The last para of this article translates as:
Lalit Modi blamed the media for making a mountain out of a molehill. Incidentally, the 2 Bollywood belles, Zinta and Shetty, had supported the non-inclusion of Paki players. They had expressed concern over investing on uncertainty. By playing an aggressive shot, SRK reminded them, “My Name is Khan”.
🙂
I say, why not remove everyone and modify the rules to include the entire Pakistan team as Kolkata Knight Riders??
When exactly is that movie, “My Name is Khan”, being released?
PS. I also wish that FIP went back to blogging now. 🙂 Perfect time. :))
So it seems like the Pakis may just well be back. Incase that happens, how many of you facebook unni supporting, keyboard Kshatriyas are planning to boycott those IPL teams that hire these pakis? Or stop watching that Bornagain Tehreeki Sooarukh Khans’ movies.
I really wish if they(pakis) boycott the IPL ….. I do , i really do….But they won’t do that and hence the name paki….
and if not that then shivsena or MNS do some about it.
Pakistan a great neighbour!!
where is shiv sena when u need them
SRK’s apprehension and fear, and what prompted him to play to the gallery:
I remember in 1965 as a little girl sticking black papers in the windows, standing near the trench diggers as if it would help..taking part in mock alerts..
Undergone endless apprehension listening to radio commentaries in 1971 in Delhi as a school going person in Delhi..
Felt the pit in the stomach growing when a young cousin ( a major in the army)lost his life in Kashmir saving his subordinate’s life in 1996..
Any Indian claiming Pakistan is a great neighbor, makes me sad. But SRK is not the first in bollywood to make such comments..
I understand the feeling with which you wrote this post GB..But India is unstoppable..
So is life..
The second part of the post, especially about intellectually assimilating the idea of our constitution is really good. probably without this constitution we would have been what Afghanistan is today, a country without a foreign ruler and nothing else.
Leave Shahrukh to all the cute and “Happy go lucky” people of the world. I was about to leave the post just by reading his name. Can you please write a more detailed post about the second part? people really need to know this story and very few can read “India after Gandhi”.
eeks!!!
I have read, though never finished, Guha’s India After Gandhi. Theres a strange feeling of patriotism that arises from knowing the origins of your country. Reading about the first democratic poll post independence, and the efforts it took just to record & form the constituencies is heart rendering.
bestest post!!!
there is no greater joy being an indian then seeing the republic day parade!! It irks that majority do not realise the importance of this day and how r constituion is the supreme glue which binds us as a nation…..15th Aug was becoming free….26th Jan is about remainging free till eternity.
Its gud u pointed out abt Paks R-Day, a same thot was going thru my mind on watching the parade this year…this is what differentiates us from them…our Republic day, Our Constitution, Our Freedom.
GB, I don’t know whether not having anything particularly constructive to say in any way clogs up your comments section or not. But I just wanted to say, great post! You are in fine nick and carry on the good work!
Thanks for writing this so articulately.
I wonder why nobody talked abt this.
Did anyone notice the KJO sitting beside SRK during that programme with pranoy roy .. He looks little nervous. what was the programme abt and why he accompanied SRK ?
“However what makes me Madann Choppraa mad is when I find, in some bulletin boards, SRK’s religion being dragged into this,….”
I disagree. SRK’s religion has a big role to play in this. I can’t imagine Ajay Devgan or Hrithik Roshan saying something similar and getting a big fan following in Pakistan.
I do not accuse SRK of deliberately playing the religion card as his career wobbles. It is the perception of the audience. Pakistani fans are going to be more receptive to SRK’s overtures than those of a ‘kafir’ or Hindu actor. I am sure SRK realizes this as well.
Religion does play a part but not exactly as intended in some places.
Everyone is in the business of making money. So is SRK and I do not see why he should be pulled up for that. He is not the only one to be saying this. At least in his case it is easy to ascribe a motive. What about PC and now sports minister MS Gill? I can’t understand their sudden love for the game and motivation in indirectly inviting Pak players. Modi says there is a window still open. How many fuckin’ windows does IPL have?
It would be sad to have these guys in the teams now. Another round of cat and mouse games to Pakistan, it seems. Maybe you were too quick to write about the Thappad.
Otherwise a good post specially the part about the constitution and the significance of Republic Day. Ram Guha’s book is indeed a great book and I second the opinion that it should be a must read for all.
http://www.cricinfo.com/ipl2010/content/current/story/445956.html
“After suggesting that the Pakistan cricketers boycott this year’s Champions League Twenty20 and the 2011 edition of the IPL, the country’s sports minister Ijaz Jhakrani has asked the Indian government to start an inquiry into why not a single Pakistan player was bid for in the IPL auction on January 19.”
——->Look at the sense of entitlement here. He is asking the Govt. of India to tamper with the affairs of a private body and a private auction. This kind of reaction is not seen even when terrorists are involved. Shows that Pakistan has clearly got its priorities in the wrong places and that they are totally fucked up. And as I keep saying, the reaction to this DOES show many many psychological traits. Now as to the reaction of a dolt on the street- in India it could be Revenge, in Pakistan it could be “Dinner pe bulaya, phir lath mara”- does it matter? Probably not. But it does throw some very interesting light on psychological issues. Take this youtube comment from the Sohail Tanveer video:
“Indians are jealous that they never had and never will? have a great personality like Shahid Afridi, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram. These great personalities are PAKISTANI cricket legends and Indians are jealous because all their cricket players are not even worth to look at.”
Ok.:)) So this retarded dolt thinks that Modi and IPL franchises suddely became jealous of the looks of Afridi, Khan and Akram and acted the way they did, or are alleged to do. Remarkable. I am telling you, after Kargil and 26-11, when diplomatic ties were cut, it did not elicit even a fraction of this kind of a reaction. This snub, inadvertently, has hurt them somewhere deep, very deep. You will also notice how, even in the 90s, people like Musharraf used to ask for bilateral ties to be maintained wrt cricket etc., despite everything. Now after it has been abundantly manifested that such ties have zero effect on extremist reactions (it doesn’t matter if a random guy of Karachi or his 6 friends suddenly become sympathetic to India after these eyewash “building bridges” cricket matches- they have a dictator govt and people’s will or aman or asha or whatever the fuck it is does not have any impact on Indian issues. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Completely independent.)
Also, so brain-washed are people from the left side of the border, that they just refuse to see any kind of fault on their part. “We will pull out of whichever IPL we want. But you have a responsibility to select us when we are available, whenever we are available. We will also bomb your country and then lionize the terrorists. But you have no right to disrupt the circus of cricket, culture and Bollywood that we are so fond of. Plus the IPL is a very financially lucrative tournament.”
Well 2 words here: FUCK YOU.
This is typical trade union type mentality. I am telling you, if the government of India bows down to this kind of pressure, it will be meddling with the affairs of a private body. It will also send the message that we are vulnerable to this kind of pressures.
The article continues:
“We want the government of India to intervene in this issue and let us know who was responsible in keeping Pakistan cricketers away from the IPL,” Jhakrani told AP. “From day one our stance is that the IPL decision was an influenced one.”
———->Ok. So now it is a slightly different tune. Earlier the hue and cry was that the government has somehow influenced IPL decisions, and now the Govt is OK, and it is the IPL which is the culprit. Well, how can anyone influence an auction? My decision to buy something is always influenced by something. But this pressure on a franchise owner to go for a Paki player- is that not an influence? You moron.
“”His [Chidambaram’s] statement is a positive sign and it vindicates our stance, and I would appreciate if the government of India interferes in this [IPL] issue,” Jhakrani said. “Their statements make it crystal clear that there was involvement of a third player in influencing the IPL auction.”
Both the Indian government and the BCCI were quick to distance themselves from the results of the auction after Pakistan players reacted with anger. Jhakrani had also complained to his Indian counterpart and the PCB raised the issue with the ICC. There were calls for the Pakistan hockey team to pull out of next month’s World Cup in India, and a parliamentary committee canceled a trip to India in protest. Jhakrani added that a Pakistan golf team’s tour of India had also been put on hold.”
——-> This is nothing but blackmail. Or an extortion attempt. Just like the blackmail to free that terrorist by hijacking a plane. Just more subtle. If the Govt. of India shows a little bit of spine and just keeps quiet, you bet that both hockey team and the other whatever fucking team will both show up. But Chidambaram has already lit the fire and SRK has made it a wildfire.
Also look at this comment: “Their statements make it crystal clear that there was involvement of a third player in influencing the IPL auction.”
So hence, we as a fourth player, want to set the record straight, just by saying that things are “crystal clear”. Right?
I mean, there is no basis in law on what these guys are alleging. It is just an manipulative extortion attempt based on thin air. Do anyone of you believe that an attorney from their side can prove that a disappointment on the part of Chidambaram and SRK is a prof of tampering in the auction? I mean the links of logic here are so tenuous. I wish there was someone in our government who just responded in the same tone with respect to the Mumbai attacks. “We believe that there was your influence in the Mumbai attacks. Do an investigation as to who was responsible. Then you give us the terrorists while we allow all these players to play.” How about that? How about that? Huh.
Let me preempt the broken record quote that will come my way, that cliche, “Sports and Politics should be kept separate”, by dishing out the same to you. Sports and politics should indeed be kept separate. Therefore, if political teams to India are being stopped, and political pressure is being applied to India govt., based on what happened in a sports auction, then you are committing the same mistake that you accuse me of doing. And remember to substantiate your allegation with some sort of backing-up, and not like what that dolt said about Indians being jealous of Afridi’s looks etc. OK? Until then, you all sound just like SRK. A lot of hot air and a gasbag, no substance.
http://blog.dawn.com/2010/01/27/backtracking-on-the-ipl
EXTRACT
“……
It took two cunningly placed comments, one from Shah Rukh Khan, the owner of Kolkata Knight Riders, and the other from the Australian assistant coach of Rajasthan, Darren Berry. Shah Rukh said he would have gone for Abdur Razzaq while Berry said they had Umar Akmal in their plans. Get it, guys? No? Read on.
Before the auction, with catastrophic assumption and arrogance, Shahid Afridi had said his preference would be to play for Kolkata or Rajasthan. Now are you reading between the lines? Shahid who? In my books, this oversight will go down as the most pleasantly communicated snub of all time.
…..”
I never really understood why people keep asking India to take the supposed high road for everything related to Pakistan compared to some of the responses to terror attacks the world over *cough* Afghanistan war *cough* India’s responses have been deserving of sainthood but till when are we going to keep taking the advice of Gandhi and turning the other cheek ready for round 456?
Regarding separatist factions in India strange as it may sound i think it’s an improvement since at least now after 60 years people are identifying themselves with territory 😛 perhaps in another 20 – 30 years the concept of a nation state would also come into people’s heads and they will begin to identify themselves with their country and not states, union territory, societies etc
PS: Will definitely buy your book now
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/paks-humiliated-as-ipl-teams-run-scared-20100123-mrs3.html
Deconstructing Darren Berry:
“After spending the past two weeks in India preparing for the Indian Premier League in March, I am staggered at the recent treatment of the Pakistan players. I agree with Shahid Afridi that he and his countrymen were humiliated in the IPL auction in Mumbai last week.
It was common knowledge to all involved that the Pakistan players would not be bid for, due to the security concerns still lingering in India after the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Eleven Pakistan players nominated for the auction and made the final list of 66 players. Unbelievably, the world Twenty20 champions received no interest from any of the franchise owners.”
——–>So if it was common knowledge that security concerns meant that the franchises would not bid for Paki players, then why is it ‘unbelievable’? Huh
——–
“The major concern from all franchises was that if they shelled out big cash for the likes of Afridi, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanveer, Shoaib Malik and Saeed Ajmal and the state office failed to register visa applications and entry requirements, the teams would be left high and dry. The Pakistan players’ frustration was that they had been told all was sorted out and entry into the 2010 IPL would be all clear. In reality, this was far from the truth and the already-strained relationship between the two countries only worsened last Tuesday afternoon in Mumbai.
Sadly, politics and foreign affairs got in the way of cricket decisions and the game itself, along with the Pakistan players, suffered as a consequence.”
See, again he is surprised at something which he acknowledges. I, as a franchise owner, will base my decisions, on my fears and apprehensions, and not on how sure Paki players think they are wrt visa etc. It is like me being sure that I can be the CEO of Goldman Sachs. Doesn’t matter. Goldman Sachs does not think so. So you see, even Berry admits that this is a scenario where sports and politics are inextricable tied, and hence, one can influence another, as a rational consequence, and not as a malicious design.
———
“I do not have all the information – and possibly never will as this was a very delicate issue played out behind the scenes. However, I do know – due to my coaching role with the Rajasthan Royals – that a few weeks ago Umar Akmal was No. 1 priority on the Royals’ shopping list. All of a sudden he was not available. As the auction unfolded live on TV in India, it became evident that it wasn’t just Umar Akmal who was in the no-go zone, but all of the Pakistan players.
The press in India asked plenty of questions but got few straight answers. The Pakistan board and past players have vented their anger and disapproval since the snubbing and, sadly, two very proud cricketing nations are once again at loggerheads.”
——> So there you go!!! He admits he does not have complete information and is merely speculating. So again, if franchises had the safety-first attitude wrt Pakistani players, then they did the right thing by taking off Umar Akmal off the radar! Its simple, as he is a Pakistani. It is their cash they are spending. They have every right to invest it wisely. You are the broker. Not the financial advisor. You can advise me, but do not tell me what stocks to pick. Or question my choices.
———
“The Pakistan players themselves are angry and rightly so. They feel humiliated that not one of them registered a single bid. The question is: why were they allowed to stay in the auction if no one was going to bid for them? Something far more sinister was bubbling behind the scenes and, sadly, the players themselves knew nothing about it.”
—————> The answer is: Each individual franchise makes their decision independent of one another. As you see that now KKR has some kind of window open. People do not know before an auction as to who will bid for whom. If all of them stayed away from Pakis, then none of them got selected. Its that simple. Again, the cumulative result that has so pissed them off is actually making it sound so sinister. If you think about it, from an individual franchise owner’s view, it makes sense.
————
“The owners of teams invested their money in players who were certain bets, players such as Kieron Pollard, Wayne Parnell, Kemar Roach and injury-prone Kiwi Shane Bond. The maximum available to spend by any franchise was $US750,000, however another cleverly concocted adjunct to the main auction was the silent auction that was to be conducted after the main event. Both Pollard and Bond had interest from more than one team at the maximum price and therefore qualified for the silent auction. Each team was permitted one bid only for each player. To absolutely secure your man you had to bid big.
But the biggest coup was that any additional money above the maximum of $750,000 would go directly to the BCCI which is, after all, the parent of the IPL.
The Mumbai Indians were the successful bidder on Pollard for a figure allegedly in excess of $2 million. Bond went to the Kolkata Knightriders for the ”paltry” sum of $1.2 million.
The game has gone mad. Six weeks in India for telephone-number figures or drag yourself all over the world for 10 months of the year for your country for less than half the money. That must have been a real tough decision for Bond. Cash over country is becoming the top priority for many superstars, especially those in the twilight of their career.”
——–> The key sentence: “Each team was permitted one bid only for each player.” So you see there were a lot of constraints on the owners. It is not that open. Hence, when big bucks are involved, why question them about making rational and sure choices. It is their money, not yours.
———–
“The auction itself was a circus, with Bollywood actors and actresses as well as billionaire businessmen holding up baton lights from their tables when they wished to place a bid. Clearly, most had been briefed with plans and strategies from the cricket brains at each franchise.
In India, or with the IPL at least, it’s about the sideshow just as much as the main show and the auction was watched by millions of people.
The passion for the game in the subcontinent is like nothing else in the world. It makes the fanatical fans of our AFL competition look meek and mild. The game is like a religion for the vast majority in India. The IPL roadshow is warming up once again and come March 12 the biggest cricket event the world has ever seen will kick off for its third year. The poignant part about it is that for the second year in a row no Pakistan players will feature on the big stage, for reasons totally out of the players’ hands and nothing to do with the game.”
———-> See how he clubs the non-participation of these 2 years? The first year, it was they who backed out, you idiot. Why is that not sinister to you, Mr. Berry? And he is right, it has nothing to do with the game, or the auction, or the sinister Modi or the India govt. It has everything to do with the cumulative result of rational, individual choices, which if I may add, have every fucking right to be biased. :)How would you feel, as a buyer, if I alleged you of not buying fish as something sinister, simply because I like it?
@ Alphaq: Thank you very much for the link. 🙂
Things become so much easier when these comments are made by a Pakistani. You know…otherwise….the “Sports and politics are separate” guys would have been all over you. That blog post deserves some sort of award. A big award. Now that is being articulate. Somebody should post it to SRK’s twitter page. Please!!
“Before the auction, with catastrophic assumption and arrogance, Shahid Afridi had said his preference would be to play for Kolkata or Rajasthan. Now are you reading between the lines? Shahid who? In my books, this oversight will go down as the most pleasantly communicated snub of all time.”
Hehe. True!
“The cricketing patriots have already realised the future cost of demanding self-respect. Nationalistic fervour has already been replaced by an attitude of appeasement. When a friend asked if the IPL would really be blocked, I responded, “it’s a matter of days before the threat is forgotten as cable operators realise that by blocking the IPL they’ll lose out on a couple of million rupees in revenues that advertising will generate.”
Sure it will. This is not the first time threats to ban movies etc have been made. Our silence should therefore be construed as “We dont give a fuck”.
“Plus, the players will realise that their ire has been hijacked by the media for sound bytes, by the ministers for popularity bytes, ex-cricketers for news bytes, the PCB rebels for chairman-seat-claim bytes and the government for vote bytes. For the sake of jingoistic points (which they need after doubling the prices of sugar, petrol, gas and electricity in a matter of 18 months), politicians have unnecessarily given a matter worth sidelining global publicity and brought their own shortcoming into sharp focus.”
Beautiful! Beautiful! So articulate!
“Now the cricketers, led by Afridi, are rushing to douse the embers as they realise they’ve been made the pawns in a battle of the bytes. In a press release on Tuesday, Afridi expresses his willingness to forgive and forget, claims he will happily visit India to play in the IPL, and in a way snubs both his chairman and the sports minister, who had announced that no Pakistani players would participate in the IPL again.
Chances are, Afridi probably had this change of heart when the SA Redbacks made it clear that he could not share the 3.3-million-dollar winner’s purse in IPL Champions League later this year in the event that the team won.”
Look at that! :)))))))))))))))
“Some sort of dressing down after the IPL fiasco – and Pakistan’s reaction to it – was inevitable. It is ironic, though, that the cricketing powers that be are now claiming that they have been vindicated. That’s stupid. The statements of Shah Rukh and Indian Home Minister Chidambaram merely confirm what they claimed on January 19: that there is no conspiracy by the government of India and that this is a private affair of an Indian company. Read their statements in totality; they felt threatened by local nationalists and the responsibility to ensure security. Shah Rukh in particular talks of huge revenue losses in that eventuality.
The Indians have also learned diplomatic skills from their former English masters. They see the big picture and know full well that, by now, saner voices have prevailed in Pakistan. For obvious reasons, the last thing the Indians want is a Pakistan with a bruised ego and a score to settle. After all, they have just received permission from the Pakistan government to send Indian food items across the border without requiring prior permission. And so Mr. Chidambaram steps in with his soothing words.
Other than that, there are economical reasons why both have given sympathetic statements. Shah Rukh fears for his market here: My name is Khan is releasing in Pakistan on February 12 and a Pakistani boycott of all things Indian would hurt him (notice he mentions his Pakistani links in his statement).
You will soon hear that the ministers and players have chosen to be big-hearted and will claim to ‘forgive India’ and reinitiate their parliamentarian delegations. The cricketers will allow themselves to be auctioned again. Butt will remind us that his initial reaction to the auction had been: “So what? We didn’t play IPL2 either.” And knowing the Indians they will grin and move on with promises of including Pakistani players in the future. As such, the IPL auction sums up the story of our two nations.”
Clap clap clap. Bravo! SRK should read this!!!:)
http://blog.dawn.com/2010/01/27/backtracking-on-the-ipl/
GB,
I don’t know if you have seen “Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara” campaign.In case you haven’t, please watch it asap.In case you have, please blog on it.
I watched it yesterday and was absolutely shattered.( I must mention here that but ofcourse I have seen the original one)
This man is such a fool … he says his family is from Pakistan and his father was born there. Is he trying to say his father would have been all of 62 years if he were still alive. Or is he trying to say that there was a Pakistan before that.
@AlphaQ
I tend to agree with you that “SRK’s religion has a big role to play in this”.
But what strikes me as puzzling is that when I analyse why SRK has such an openly pro-Pakistani tilt, there is no apparent financial benefit to SRK – as Pakistan is synonymous with pirated Bollywood DVDs. As in the case of previous Bollywood movies, you won’t find Pakistanis queuing up outside movie theaters to watch “My Name is Khan”. Typically, ingenious Pakistanis produce and sell millions of pirated Bollywood DVDs each year, as soon as the latest movies are released in India. And that is how Pakistanis watch the latest blockbusters from across the border. If Pakistanis are going to be watching pirated DVDs of “My Name is Khan” on February 12, where is the financial benefit to SRK in playing a pro-Pakistan card?
Now that I think about it, I think SRK plays the Indian card to fool secular fetishists in India, while playing the Muslim card whenever he feels he can speak from his heart and can get away with it. This way, he can have the cake and eat it too. I think SRK, the great secular pin-up boy, has inadvertently revealed his true, communal colours.
@Sohail Tanvir (if you are reading this post)
I’m glad you have understood “Hinduon ki Zehniyat” (Mentality of Hindus). Thank you sir ! Your profound words have opened the eyes of evil Hindus like me about your ilk’s mentality behind such lovely-dovey thoughts. Please rest assured that we Hindus won’t give you a taste of the same medicine by retorting unwisely and rashly that we too have understood the “Musalmanon ki Zehniyat” or “Pakistanion ki Zehniyat”, because we fully understand that such politically incorrect comments would go against the true secular spirit that Hindus possess (and also because that would get me banned from posting any comments on any Indian blog). Sohail bhai sahab, hum Hinduon ki Zehniyat hee aisi hai. 😉
Hi Arnab
Good stuff this. High time SRK is exposed for the ham and sham of an actor that he is.
@ bengalvoice and alpha Q
don’t bring SRK’s religion into this, however valid that may be. Greatbong has to sell his books too. As long as it’s paki bashing, it’s ok. Nobody there will buy GB’s book anyway.
Your article the Khan and I perfectly sumps up the making of SRK and also his subsequent breaking… he has become very formulaic in his approach and lacked any bit of versatility in his roles, and added to that those tried and tested bunch of directors sans any inclination to innovation or exploration of newyer themes… (few exceptions are anyways there)
most of his moves with a commercial intent are easily deciphered by people now thanks to the articles given by media and blogs written by people like you & his timing of that pro friendly neighbor statement sky rocketed him to the ‘man of commerce’ reputation…
& ya wont like to comment much about the land whose existence is based on anti india ideologies… when India toured pak in 2004, was happy with the reception the team got in colleges and thought education will change the perspective of people there but i guess its not a feasibility in the coming few decades as long as their system nurtures politicians who target India when ever they want to divert the attention from their civil problems…
guess life going forward is more about harmony and peaceful coexistence which india has almost successfully implemented in the past six decades and already made huge strides forward in the modern history..
@ Bengal Voice and Gogo
Disclaimer: I like SRK. His movies are by and large sad, predictable and pathetic but I still like him for the entertainment package that he is. I am ready to give him a very very long rope for I do NOT believe that he is communal or he plays the religion card deliberately.
All that I was trying to suggest in my earlier post was that religion, in an indirect way, does come into play. I agree with Bengal Voice that there is apparently very little to gain commercially by pandering to a Pakistani constituency. This thought struck me as well.
I believe that Muslim actors have a ready acceptance across the border (and SRK or Dilip Kumar are not to blame for this). However, even they have to work hard at cultivating those roots and identifying with people across the western border. A Farhan Akhtar saying the same thing would do nothing for ‘Kartik Calling Kartik’.
You pointed out the example of Dilip Kumar earlier in comments. I am sure he had/has no regrets on staying back. Unlike Saadat Hasan Manto, Dilip Kumar has been given the freedom to practice his craft and has got the love and respect of people. He invoked the name of God for there is a ready constituency that accepts it. That’s my point.
I do not have the skills or time to analyze this phenomenon and go into details but it could be adulation, fan following or ego boost. SRK throwing a comment or two across the borders elicits a strong positive reaction. Not so for the rest. He can ride two boats, others can’t. Maybe that’s his kick. Maybe not.
Hi Arnab!
I have been following your blog lately and just love your wit,sense of humor,logical thinking and clarity of thought.
This is one of the best posts I have read, and pertinent to our times!!Most of us in our daily lives have really forgotten what democracy and indian constitution really stands for.
Keep churning the brilliance man!
@Alpha q- Someone just knocked on my door. He was naked with a knife stuck on his back. He just died on my car[et. On his chest, there was a tattoo, “I want to see Pakis play IPL 3”. The backside had a deep knife carving, the symbol alpha floowed by a Q!!!! U?????
Though lately followed, I liked your blogs.
There is much more than just the thoughts.
I think as a mark of protest they should start their own IPL or PPL or whatever. They can get players from Afghan, B’desh etc and Then they can pay us back by not buying any of our players…..!!.
Or in protest they should give up playing T20 altogather. That will teach us.
@Sam’s comment: “Make life tough of Pakistan because so long as we do not retaliate they will keep training millions of Kasabs.”
Wonderful ! Just wonderful ! Let’s keep blaming Kasabs and keep plying our local Jihadis with Kebabs.
Please think carefully. Is Bitta Karate a Pakistani? Is Syed Salahuddin a Pakistani? Was Saifuddin (formerly Suha Bhat) a Pakistani? Do any of the Jihadis of Tablighi Jamaat, Jamaat-e-Islami, Hizbul Mujahideen or SIMI happen to be Pakistanis?
GB,
I have been an ardent admirer of your blog for a few years now. While I mostly agree to your views on the blog, I do feel that some of the SRK bashing is purely “Confirmation Bias”. Just because you do not like SRK, you will try and infer what confirms your bias against him. When SRK spoke about his Pakistani roots and wished that we should be good neighbors, why does that make him a Paki-lover? Of course, the best scenario for India is to have a good neighbor in Pakistan, although the current situation is far removed from that.
Also, as you’d know, the player invite list is put together based on the wish-list of all the IPL teams. That would mean any of the 12 (not sure if that is the right count) IPL teams could have included names of Paki players in their wish list. Eventually, during the auction, they chose not to buy the Paki players for whatever reasons. Please realize that KKR already has several Paki players, and therefore, SRK may NOT have wanted any more Paki players on his wish list. What am I trying to prove? Well, a lot of readers are foolishly suggesting that if SRK felt so bad about Pakis, he should have bought them. Point is, he may not have had any of them in his wish list at all. But somebody did, and they backed out after inviting these Paki players for the auction.
Also, even if SRK is issuing these statements to appease his Paki- fan base, why do you envy him when everyone else does the same to further his/her interests, case in point being your own aggressive marketing of your book at every possible opportunity. I am not being critical at all- I do think it is perfectly fine to aggressively market your product. However, I just hope you extend the same courtesy to others like SRK as well.
Aside from these insignificant rants, I loved the post. As much as we complain about the pseudo-secularism that prevails in India, the spirit of tolerance and harmony still flows through our veins thanks to the amazing vision of our leaders from 1950.
I think I saw 2 people in a dark alley, 2 people who looked like SRK and Razzak, the first bent upon the latter in earnest, and singing “Sab Ganda Hai par Dhanda hai ye”. I got scared as shit and ran away as fast as my legs could carry me.
rambling post and silly reactions..
both full of prejudices..
Arnab, by your own admission, you’ve become a mindless Paki basher. Raj Thackeray would love you like a brother, assuming he can read. I’m unable to reconcile this with your superb defense of the Constitution. I mean Rajsaheb wouldn’t recognise the Indian Constitution even if you shoved it up his ass and pulled it out through his mouth. I believe your heart is in the right place. You’re too bright to be pandering to the mob like this.
Excellent write Arnab! Keep more bright stuff coming in…
And now, suggestion for Kasab as captain of KKR 😮
http://www.newkerala.com/news/fullnews-41443.html
Reason for SRK’s stand
Agree with GB – its (more) about money.. but target could be Indian Muslims also
Disagree – it has got to do with religion, of course
Democracy has survived in India because the majority religion is a mild one
well written….
GB
Applause for the post coz somehow u echo my thots in most of ur posts. But at the same vein I strongly refute to salute one person u mentioned. The “reverred” Dr. B.R Ambedkar
I still havent forgotten the ramifications of The COmmunal Award of 1929 and its subsequent turns. A man whom u credit for India’s sovereignty n secularity in binding the country above the realms of religion to me is the chief architect of a bigger problem tht splits India now. That of “reservationist politics” The whole idea of enforced reservation to me isn’t any less a divide n rule [policy. I wont go into the details of wat it has brought to ther country coz it’s all well in the open But to me the present concepts of GJM n Telangana seem rooted in this wise man’s tactics years ago. The net result??
When someone asked me how many states India has, I have to come up with answers such as; “When we were in school it was 26, not sure now” 😦
Open Letter to Mr.Shahrukh Khan by Arindam Bandyopadhyay
Finally. Some sense in the blogosphere. As always, a fantastic and ballsy post, Arnab.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100204/jsp/frontpage/story_12065139.jsp
Now SRK is promoting dubious management institute whose founder has fake degrees..
And media fails again to give the true picture of the case…i guess we should dump the idiot box and bring something new ..how abt a twitter scroll below TV channels …and the best socially voted twitterer gets his voice/questions heard to both the viewers and news readers…and the person whom media is asking questions…
Awesome post GB! …. You hit the nail – SRK’s statements might be a little loony but they have got nothing to do with the man’s religion & everything to do with the man’s pockets. 😉
Also, the manner in which you articulated the significance of 26 January in India’s history clearly indicates the level of passion and emotional involvement that you exhibit for the issue – it is indeed imperative that we recognize that Republic Day is perhaps more markedly significant than our Independence Day – for that is when the pluralistic multi-ethnic multi-lingual and secular democracy was first drafted. 🙂
Awesome post GB! …. You hit the nail – SRK’s statements might be a little loony but they have got nothing to do with the man’s religion & everything to do with the man’s pockets. 😉
Also, the manner in which you articulated the significance of 26 January in India’s history clearly indicates the level of passion and emotional involvement that you exhibit for the issue – it is indeed imperative that we recognize that Republic Day is perhaps more markedly significant than our Independence Day – for that is when the pluralistic multi-ethnic multi-lingual and secular democracy was first drafted. 🙂
You are very correct in your analysis of SRK he is sooo artificial …but then so is Amir Khan …and we all know of their ethical standards don’t we…the media in India always wants a good soundbite out of these people and they go on preaching as if they are the new set of Messiahs sent to us by the almighty …
After all is said and done, Indian Constitution is very boringly written.
I could not get a copy of Constitution, bought a book written by a person called DD Basu.
He shall not, bear in mind, ……
If the intent of constitution is to clarify principles, the language defeats the purpose.
No wonder, every second law uses the same tone.
Shall not, aforementioned, ………..
@Mallikarjuna
After all it’s Indian Constitution and not the script of KJo movie.
revathi:
The indian constitution is also being amended too many times in my opinion, we cannot boast that it is not being done to satisfy the whims and fancies of the ruling party.
I agree with Revathi here. Case in point: The office of profit issue where the for-profit posts became non-profit retrospectively.
“Coming from Pakistan, where the education system packs them with lies about winning wars with India and equates Hindus with India and Muslims with Pakistan, I did not expect the man to say anything better”
That’s an awfully broad brush to be painting ‘them’ with isn’t it greatbong, based on one Sohail Tanvir’s comment? Also, I wonder how you’re so intimate with the Pakistani education system.
You sound like my dad when he used to drive through Watgunj cussing out the Muslims who would were perhaps too ‘uppity’ for him.
Honestly, why hate on pakistan? Don’t you think Great Britain is a worthier candidate for your hate? Although I suppose subaltern narratives means squat to you.