I salute the people of Dantewada who have stood up against such a mighty state.
Arundhati Roy after the massacre of CRPF personnel by Maoists
Despite the deadliest Naxal attack ever in nearby Dantewada now, the resolve of these men and women to join the police force remains unaffected — to some extent driven by the few options available to them in the vastly forested tribal district, but to a large part motivated by anger against Naxalites, their empty promises and the reign of terror they have come to symbolise. They are even willing to risk the wrath of the Maoists that may follow. [From the Indian Express]
The “people of Dantewada” (as defined by Ms. Roy and not necessarily by reality as evidenced by the extract from the Indian Express) have stood up once again killing fifty people including Special Police Officers (SPO)s and civilians, an act surely worthy of yet another salute from the bravest intellectual of our times, one who commands a zombie vahini of frothing liberals that would be the envy of Saruman. Now in most other countries, gratuitous massacre of police forces would be met with the full force of the law, for instance in the US there is a special edge in the way “cop killers” are pursued. However in India, such an act is met with an appeal from our Home Minister for a cease-fire an offer that has rightfully been rejected by the victor, Maoist leader Kishenji. When policemen and civilians can be butchered ad nauseam and when media organizations and a section of the intelligentsia applaud that massacre, who in their right mind would let go the initiative?
Now Chidambaram will be derided as craven and rightfully so. However I don’t blame PC entirely. Hell the man cannot even accept that Operation Green Hunt, an initiative to restore the rule of law in parts of the country, even exists. That is because his party is not fully behind him. And why arent they? Because the party is afraid of “popular opinion” and electoral configurations (one of their electoral partners has been manipulating Maoist violence to overthrow a state government), and in front of that, what are the lives of a few hundred policemen and yes even some common people. Of course what is meant by popular opinion is the echo chamber of some major TV channels and a few newspapers who have successfully introduced a new flashcard—- “tribals” into the lexicon of political correctness, wherein any act of brutality is tangentially justified as long as it is done by tribals, even if the atrocities are perpetrated on fellow tribals through kangaroo courts.
Unlike PC, I am lucky that I don’t have to win elections. Even then my political positions have hurt me personally. I have been told with respect to publicity for my book that I am not well-liked personally in the Indian media. This unpopularity stems evidently from my political stance. I was told by a friend that her “liberal” friend said “I do not read Greatbong’s blog because he is Hindutva”. It is quite another thing that I have to spend the most time editing, moderating and banning “Hindutva” commentators, many of whom try to use the comment-space to “spread their message”, some of which is immensely hateful and that they are as egregious in heaping personal abuse on me as some Arundhati-fans, both sides containing people who use multiple monikers to comment even though “they” are actually one person .There have also been times people have said on my comment-space and on twitter—“I was going to buy your book but after reading your opinion I will definitely not” as if that would be sufficient punishment for my opinion.
Of course the prospect of unpopularity does not really affect my political stance (i.e. of strict neutrality) in any way but what it does make me understand is why politicians, who need popularity, just cannot do the right thing. And it helps me understand the reactions that are faced for not being “politically correct” as per the conventions established.
For instance, any post on politics (typically on people like Ms. Roy or on the cult of appeasement) will usually result in a few comments of the form “You are good at writing on Hindi movies and cricket. Dont write on politics” leaving me wondering what is so poisonous if a fool like me, whose intellect cannot go above Mithun-da movies, writes on politics on his own blog. Surely if it is crap, it is of no importance. So why bother to read or to comment? Evidently those who appropriate the word “liberal” for themselves arent too liberal of opposing opinions, even when they are expressed on a personal corner of the Web. There will be comments of the sort “You stay outside the country. What do you know of the real situation?” written by people whose IP address is from the US, Denmark etc. Then there will be others who will dub Arundhati Roy’s guided romp through Maoist territory and the resultant bit of passionate rhetoric coming from a self-confessed biased observer as “research” and hence beyond reproach. When I point out that what Maoist leaders want is not justice for tribals but the decimation of the Indian political system and the establishment of a Pol-Pot like regime, I am told that the Pol-Pot regime was supported by the USA—as if that is somehow germane to my original point.
But what possibly most disgusts me is the different ways in which the following justification is expressed (Ms. Roy is at least pretty straight-forward on this)—“The deaths of policemen are an inevitable consequence for their persecution of tribals” as if the poor policeman’s family is somehow to blame for losing their breadwinner, in the process making retributive violence kosher as long as it done by those described as “tribals”.
The Maoist problem is of course an immensely complex one and no one will advocate an only-force solution. No one also should be washing away the sins of the State, including its suppression of dissent by tarring many innocent people as Naxalites, because of which the genuine Naxalite-sympathizers and collaborators can hide themselves, the State having lost all credibility by crying wolf too often.
However it has to be established for every insurgent in this country that you cannot, just cannot get away, by killing policemen and civilians no matter what your justification for the act is and that there will be consequences of doing that. Thats the way it works in most countries. Just not in India.
And you can blame our politics for that.
The Greatbong Blog & Podcast 
Nice Article
Our country is having a civil war, which many people simply refuse to accept. However what makes it worse is when people try to justify killings.
I’m astonished that you seem surprised by such reactions. What did you really expect?
Second!!!
When did I say I was surprised?
It’s dragged on long enough. Reports suggest that the naxals have laid mines deep under the roads during construction. Bombs that can take out armoured cars are not hand made bombs created by rag-tag tribal folk. If Roy wishes to secede in protest then I’d like to help her pack.
I think you spelt “personel” incorrectly.
Arnab,
Politics in India is so murky, u can’t evade it once u plunged into it. Well said n was a fitting reply! Given a chance n authority, I wud drop Arundhati Roy amidst Naxals and wipe out everyone thru air raids. Enough is enough! They call it revolution/revolt for their cause in the beginning but boil down to vested interests. And because of these Naxals, needless to say why the plight of Jharkhand, WB, Orissa, AP, Chattisgarh is badly poised who by now could have had good progress economically and as a state!
“The government has launched operation green hunt to grab forest land and hand it over to corporate houses. They want to displace the tribals from their homes. We live in a fascist society. This is not democracy. The government should immediately stop this war which has been thrust upon its own people,” added Roy.
Is there any truth in the above statement? If it is true then what do you suggest for the tribals? Should we see versions of exploitation which happened to South American communities and Nigeria in India?
Naxalism may not be an answer. But how do you reason with bureaucracy and state? If its a driving license or electricity connection you can probably bribe your way out. But if the state is displacing you en masse what do you suggest? A course of non-violent SATYAGRAHA? Will that work with Salwa Judum, Raman Singhs and other actors? Will they listen?
0 resposes yet ?
ok so the page was opened when i started…..had dinner and came back and finished reading.
Ok, I comment rarely, but I wish to say (in view of the other reactions) that I greatly admire your politics posts, and I’m sure I’m not alone. It is impressive that you always remain an objective observer, and very sad to see the people (“liberal” or not) who seem to think that anyone who expresses an opinion they do not agree with is an enemy, who seem incapable of disagreement without disrespect, who think that your previous post is an insult to Gandhi and themselves, who seem to want to either idolise or demonise every public figure, etc.
Please continue writing on politics and calling it as you see it.
Don’t worry dude… ur political stance is quite normal… I am sure most people think the same way you do…
Political violence in India is hardly ever punished. “Rebels” in Mizoram killed the entire police top brass in 60’s, I don’t think anyone was ever punished for that.
I had the misfortune of knowing quite a few of these useful idiots of revolution personally. Way back in 2003 when PWG and MCC merged there was a celebration in JNU campus. It was a watershed moment for Indian Maoists.
The Maoist victory in Nepal was another big event. India screwed up big time by letting Maoists capture power in Nepal, if you read the Maoist roadmap they know that Nepal being a land locked country needs a friendly government in India to survive. There is a lot of cooperation between the Indian and Nepali Maoists. Prachanda is probably the biggest threat to both India and Nepal.
Finally Tribals != Maoists . Why should tribals trusts Maoists, when Communists governments world over have the worst record of displacing native people from their lands in the name of larger good, How do they know they are not mere pawns in the big game? Even the most confident of overground naxals are not able to answer this convincingly.
Sorry to hear that your political positions have hurt you personally (and the book). There are many folks who like what you write despite differences of opinion in many cases. I did like the book and love this blog as well.
i remember some years back when i was in my school i saw a footage on tv wherein some Bangladeshi army men have killed some Indian jawans citing reasons like crossing the border and all those craps .The ordeal didn’t stop there, they hanged them like an animal on a piece of bamboo and paraded all over the places ,clicking pics and smiling shamelessly in media.Now if these would have happened in countries who still care for their army the perperators would have been asking for a shed to hide their sorry asses….but wht our government did was give some pathetic interviews that too more shamelessly…..wht do u expect from ppl who have to care more for their detoriating health than the affairs of the country….as u once said GB Sir “Why O Why”…..
First things first, I am no supporter of Arundhati Roy’s viewpoints.
But I am not sure if the journalist at Indian Express has interpreted the facts properly.
As of 2001, Dantewada had a population of around 7.2 lakhs[Would have increased by now] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dantewada_district). Only 16000 of them turning up for police recruitments does not really mean that the “people of Dantewada” are angry with Maoists.
I seriously doubt if the journalist would have interviewed more than a few of them. In any case, people appearing for police recruitments are going to say what the recruiters want to hear (That’s true for most job interviews).
No relation to this post but your book reads so drawn out and presumptuous. I was trying to read the chapter on wedding where you make a few non-points in some excruciating detail. It is a let down. I was actually looking forward to it .
@ Mahaveeran
Have you not heard of democracy? If there is such wide spread discontent, why does not Ms. Roy stand for elections from Dantewada? If she wins, surely she will be able to guide the bereaucracy as a elected representative.
Maybe I am naive, but it seems to me that Mr. Singh would also want to win elections and hence would be watching for popular discontent far more than people like Ms. Roy who only want to write provocatory articles.
Indian state deserves whatever Naxals are doing to it. We need to accept the reality that if we cannot protect our territory and cannot look after our people, somebody else will win them over. Another reality we also need to accept is Indian boundaries won’t be the same after 25 to 50 years. Most of the north east states will go to China, Kashmir to Pakistan, and Bangladesh also would extend its territorial boundaries into Indian states. But I am not at all bothered by it at all. We deserve it. We are such a careless and inefficient and most corrupt population.
My concern is why we are not using army against them. I feel that it would be a success considering the results from Sri-lanka against LTTE and to some extend, although reluctantly, the Pak. military against, Taliban or whatever those militants in NWFP are called.
PC would be definitely wishing that he was in a Pol-Pot regime, atleast he dont have to consider this much to act against them.
UPA or NDA is in no position to contain this surge. Probably the best candidate is Left. They always show a venomous attitude towards their enemies, they have proven this to a lot extend in Kerala and Bengal. For this they dont even want the state machines, thier comrades itself is enough. This will make Arundhati Roy to stop bragging about mighty state designs against tribals.
@ Abhilash
The ultra-Left movement in Bharat, is not atall like the LTTE.
There was another brutal terror group in Sri Lanka that followed a similar ultra-left destructive ideology like the Naxals. It was known as Janata Vimukti Peramuna (JVP). Tha movement brutally killed and maimed thousands of Sri Lankans in the late eighties.
A grassroot militia like Salwa Judum was established to deal with them and the JVP folded and capitulated after 2 years of brutal bloodshed once they were given a taste of their own medicine.
The best way to deal Naxals is to search and kill their top leaders and ideologues, with the help of grassroot militias like Salwa Judum. Once they lose their ideologues the movement will automatically move towards constructive redressal of genuine issues of the poor.
It is sick here, GB. You are better off in US. You don’t have to see ToI and its Chaman Ki Asha, and the daily news of how many CRPF men being blasted. The media and intellectuals are so stupid, boy! If at all the Maoists come to power, what do you think they will do to them?
To remain popular in the media circles, you will have to mellow your “anti-liberal” line, though it is only in India that liberal means being happy when your defence personnel get killed!
Read this column in DNA:
http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/column_the-state-must-act_1385127
Ms Arundhati roy should be book for treason…seriously she is like a venom….she also kind of reminds of those “hippies”….on one side she says there is no freedom of speech,fake democracy,doesn’t like gandhi among others but she fails to realise that she is able to express her opinion on hatred purely because of freedom of speech…afterall do u think china would not take action if any person goes to the media & makes such comments…& why is she obsessed with hindutva…
Arundhati Roy is a crazy, kerchief wearing, hippy and not a liberal. She is completely oblivious to any human suffering that occurs on the side of the “oppressive state”, such as police personnel. To call her a liberal is an insult to liberals.
Great post again!!
@Kishor
If some personal harm is inflicted on you and your family by the naxalites will you still feel that “Indian state deserves whatever Naxals are doing to it” Also since “liberal” feel that “retribution” by the naxals in the form of killing policemen due to policies of the state, then the policemen are also justified in their retribution when they start killing every naxal and naxal sympathiser. simple fact is this : Naxalites want to establish a moist rule in this country. Is this acceptable to us ? No. Then where is the question of negotiaiting with these people. What is the basis on which you will negotiate?
Words like Liberal, Secularist, Communal, Maoist, Communist etc are being thrown around everywhere without much thought. In the end, people are just people. You can’t put them in neat little boxes with such labels.
“All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man.”
~Jiddu Krishnamurti
I am being very selfish here but if that is how they treat people guarding our freedom , what kind of treatment can we possibly expect for us???…. More often than not I need to travel to Rourkela which happens to be my hometown …. Even if its an overnight journey my mother spends a sleepless night till I reach home early morning because the whole route from Howrah to Rourkela , especially the final two hours is a densely Maoist infested area …. She preiodically calls me asking about mundane things at every halt ( yes I wryly smiled when I saw almost the same sequence being narrated about in A Wednesday) … One does not feel safe in my own surroundings let alone in the whole of India … There is a heightened sense of alertness everywhere …. A dark resignation that your life can be ended by a flying shrapnel
We need to aggressively adopt and deploy UAVs so that way we can put them under surveillance for 24 hours and after that we can launch rockets into them ala US in Pakistan…A reign of fire from the skies will tidy them up…If push comes to shove how many of us are willing to join the armed forces and brave their bullets? This is the question I am asking myself day and night..whether I have the courage to abandon a career in a cushy foreign country and expose myself to Maoist torture..Just to imagine that these CRPF jawans and Policemens and army jawans are ready to give up their lives for Rs.8-10,000 a month just brings tears to my eyes..When the areas are cleared off Naxalites India will be able to accelerate its GDP growth rate to 10-11% from the present 8~9% for the next 20-30 years…The immediate effect of this prosperity will be felt by the class which are posting on blogs.(Not a bad thing –managed Capitalism has been the greatest harbinger of prosperity) ..It seems the class which provides our jawans will have to wait out a bit for their share of prosperity..But we can do the right thing now..We can cut back on the inflated salaries of babus and hand it over to the armed forces..Just see their payscale on the internet and you will despair..Anyway India is running a huge deficit at around 80 percent of the GDP so it cannot satisfy both babus and jawans…I know which side I want to back,,,Greatbong you are a great writer of economics,,We want your honest observation on India’s debt and deficit…One year of less than4 percent GDP growth and we might go the way of Greece
Nice Article ! Can you please use simpler vocabulary.
Arnab,
Why is the IE’s opinion that the large turn-out is “motivated by anger against Naxalites, their empty promises and the reign of terror they have come to symbolise” more believable than what Roy says? Why is the former “reality” and the latter “Saruman-ish”.
This is not a comment on the point you’re making in this post but just a bit of a poke to try and undersatnd how you got there.
Hi GB,
Nice article and a very relevant one.
Bloggers can spread message, agree or disagree on several issues. But the final call lies with the government.
There can not be one-dimensional solution to any complex problem. I really regret that central govt. is not that bothered to control the situation.
BTW, are you following the Manipur-Nagaland crisis? Expecting your blog on that.
Regards,
Sowmik
Long comment alert:
The Govt has failed in incorporating *all* tribals…… it’s a failure in the same sense as reservations have been a failure. Instead of horizontal uplift across caste/jati lines we have seen a few certain castes hog political/economic power while significant swathes of low-caste/OBC populations are still in the red. Also, there are clear dividing lines among the tribal population. They are in no way a “monolithic bloc which has been deliberately oppressed by the state” as the Maoist charlatans make them out to be.
For example, in my neck of woods there are a set of tribals colloquially called Kanis who are pretty much alike to the “mainstream” in temperament, language, diet, socio-economics and most importantly alike us in finding their way through the harsh modern times. Then as you go up the mountains there are a few tribes/clans who have consciously withdrawn into their shells at the onslaught of modernity. The latter group has been under siege…. in all ways.
The men of this group find solace in illicit liquor (which the advanced tribes and the urbanites supply amply) and denial as their lives are encroached upon continuously; their women on the other hand take the entire weight of running the family on their shoulders. These people are unlike the “tamed” tribals who VERY well know what jugaad to do to survive in this world. And the other group? Truly on the edge of existence…. and partly due to their own fault.
It’s cruel but hey, it’s Darwin at work here; Integrate or perish.
This distinction between tribals is critical. And it’s not just in this particular place… it exists in ALL tribal societies around the world, faced with modernity. It happened with certain Iwis in New Zealand, Tlaxcala siding with Cortez, the Rwanda riots can be traced to Tutsis rallying with the Belgians…. Jared Diamond speaks about this phenomenon in his works like Collapse and Guns, Germs & Steel. The Maoist claim falls flat when faced with this question:- are *ALL* tribals flocking to their banner? Heck, if that was so not even the entire Indian Paramilitary can meet the challenge ‘coz 25% of MP, majority of Chhattisgarh & Jharkhand are tribals.
Remember one of the survivors of the Dantewada ambush said he heard the tribal naxals speaking in Gondi and a local CPI(M) functionary later clarified that they were speaking Gondi Koya and that it is different from the other Gondi dialects? Now there are 57 types of Gonds in MP-Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra…. Koya is considered (for census purposes, if I remember correctly) to be one Gond upajati. However, I hear the main Gonds like Arrakh/RajGond/the dozen types of Marias/the 3 types of Manas etc don’t consider Koyas as true Gonds. Methinks they are related to the Koyas of AP who were Koya upajatis driven out by the Marathas from their old areas in present day Chhattisgarh. The Marathas had reached an agreement with the other Gonds but they drove away the Koyas whom they refer to as “vicious animals”. Also, some reports/hearsay indicate that the tribals among the naxals are not Halabas or Bhatris or RajKhonds or Abhujh-Marias (after whom the forest Abhujhmard is named!) who constitute 80% of population of tribals in Bastar/Dantewada…. but mostly Koyas, Dongrias and Mogiyas (?) and certain clans from the inner mountains.
I’m not going into more details at this stage but one thing is clear; the naxal command (a bunch of stationary bandits/warlords from AP, despite their pretense of being liberators) which fled AP after destroying the lives of the people of Telegana have now found a new pool to recruit from. It is a fact that there are tribes/sub-tribes/clans on the edge and though they themselves are partly to blame for their wretched situation (even with respect to other tribes) they are being used by the naxal command. The other tribes who have so far managed to find their place in modern world power the Salwa Judum initiative and also provide manpower and assistance to the Government.
NOT A SINGLE chatterati/social-activist has bothered to go into these finer points; after all a Humans vs Na’avi angle sells better for sound-byte journalism/romanticism/foreign funding/fame isn’t it? And anyone can do polemics of “evil industry, evil government, cuddly cuddly poor poor tribals”…. it takes more effort to actually go there and observe and make accurate inferences. After all, the devil lies in the details, eh?
Contd…
Contd…
Naxals have been “serving people” in Chhattisgarh/MP for 20 yrs? Yeah, right! Except that it’s like the way there “have been always present” in Kerala or Delhi or Mumbai or JNU or New York.
Those jungles have always been the favored route between the Bihar/Jharkhand and AP Maoist zones….. and there was some Maoist infrastructure in the East Maharshtra/MP/Chhattisgarh areas to facilitate the logistic/courier lines. And yes, they did run some minor extortion rackets in the mineral and timber industries there. But did anyone see Dalam/Company/Battalion type Maoist operations which were at one time staple in Andhra and now in MP/Chhattisgarh? Did anyone see mobile towers/schools/roads/bridges getting blown up in such scale in those areas before a cpl a years? All this began in early 2006 when the Maoists were thrown out of their old bases in AP….. and I still remember Fakir Pradhan’s article which talked of Maoists using some Chhattisgarh/MP tribes to make up for the serious losses incurred.
Unlike tribals in AP a good no. of tribal groups in MP are educated and part of the modern world and even part of Govt/private infrastructure in the region…. and not just as “ayahs/bearers/cooks/laborers”. Their lives and businesses was threatened by the arrival of maoists who were riding on the numbers of their old competitor tribes/upajatis. Old issues reared up….. for long the Jhum-Pody lifestyle of the others was not sustainable anymore as the “advanced tribal” population boomed and made use of the forest laws and the 1985(?) Jhumia rehabilitation movement. This denied land to the other clans/upajatis and since then there have been increased tensions between the tribes/clans.
The opportunistic maoist command is just tapping into this old divide….. after all if there is no “sea”, the “fish’ will die in minutes. And note that the AP leadership mainly relied on forest produce/minor narcotics for funding; and to measure up to the Bihar maoist leadership which has opium farms and is hand-in-glove with the mining mafia they needed a new forest and new “b1tches”. It’s simple mafia economics; bring the bacon to the table or your “family” loses power. To make things more attractive the tribals of MP/Chhattisgarh also have serious tendu leaf/oilseeds (as well as Bauhinia agriclture) which once powered the AP maoist operations. Therefore, it was just a matter of finding a new source rather than risking entering a new field altogether. They found their pool in the marginalized tribals. And the other tribals who couldn’t take this one lying down have joined the Salwa Judum bandwagon….. In rare cases ancient tribal tensions manifest into “scorched earth” and “salting the earth” type of actions which can disrupt critical counter-insurgency operations.
The Maoists and their overground cadre who populate many NGOs realize the need for good press and sympathy in case they need leg room to recuperate. They have invested considerable money and effort in media/academics/vote-bank politicos for this purpose. They also understand the need for a noble narrative; “Tribals fighting for their lives and selfless liberators who have been forced to pick up the gun”. This narrative falls flat in the face of a Salwa Judum. Also, a force of tribals who know the forests well and can speak the same language (figuratively) as other tribals is a great danger. They are perfectly aware of how various insurgencies (including the AP maoist ops) were defeated by people from the same pool the maoists recruited their cadre from.
So they are going ALL guns blazing at the Salwa Judum and task forces which are composed of tribals. And all this while falsely portraying a Manichean Black&White picture of “Unified Tribals vs MNCs+GoI”. This, in my opinion, is BULLSHIT.
I fear the Maoists will use these tribals to mount more attacks such as Dantewada massacre to provoke the Govt to go guns blazing. I mean, *really* guns blazing. Nothing suits them better than slippery slope and a vicious circle which could feed their numbers forever. They believe that the same thing that happened in Nepal, with the botched Operation Kilo Sierra II and Operation Romeo turning even ardent non-maoists (including retired soldiers!) against the Nepal Govt will happen here. They also make parallels with the failure of Nepali Jhapa Bidroha in the 60s-70s and “success” in 2006 with Indian Naxalbari failure in 60s-70s and wet-dream of success in he near future. They also try to draw parallels to Nepali marginalized “janajati” comprising of Magar/Limbu/Karmi/Sarki/Damai vs mainstream Chhetris/Newars/Brahmins/Royalty. Also, they try to make a parallel between ethnically non-ruling Brahmins clans leading Janajatis with High Caste Maoist leadership piggybacking on tribals.
Well, a theory equating Indian and Nepal cases will be seriously flawed but let’s leave Nepal for now…. (PS: Anyone realize that though Madhav Kumar is PM and Prachanda is the grand poo-bah, the army command still swears loyalty to the royal family and the old BCNR? Anyone remember what happened when Prachanda tried to sack General Katwal and integrate his Maoist band into the standing army? I wonder what would happen when the alliance falls…)
Fortunately, there are people in the Govt who realize that they had a part to play in the mess; they alienated clans/upajatis should have been a focus area. Their rights should have been protected an they should have been actively courted in the Microfinance/Jhumia rehabilitation/Pattah granting programs. They also realize that is they go guns blazing, full COIN mode, it will only alienate tribals who are allied with the Govt and will make even more determined enemies of the other tribes.
So, the earlier program is still on track: Salwa Judum, Tribal Police Task Forces, stepping up of paramilitary training (and maybe deploying Rashtria Rifle regiments), UAVs/Remote Sensing and other C4I2….. and most importantly capturing or eliminating the middle/top maoist leadership. This hammer will act in tandem with a broad anvil-infra development, tribal outreach, our own agitprop agents and working out resettlement/land rights.
Contd…
Contd..
There are those who call this “SUMMARY WAR” and “GENOCIDE”…. do they have a clue what war is? I’ll tell you what war-genocide is—- it’s mines, mortars, flechette, long rod penetrators, APCs, artillery, saturation S&D, snipers, LRRPs, napalm, cluster munitions, defoliants, chemicals, sterilization, forced deportation, summary execution of supporters, media blackouts, emergency acts, gag orders, mass graves. THIS is war.
Actually, there are those in the Govt who see war as the easier solution…. some extra-govt parties also suport it as it is quicker and easier on the pockets. In fact with WAR one can solve the problem to a great extent. The Indian Military Machine is no rag-tag RNA or weakened Kuomintang or a Pakistani Army based on Biradari and Land-Grant. There is the capacity and organizational flexibility to inflict damage no insurgency (and those among whom the insurgents operate) can survive. But such people are outnumbered by those who want India to step into the 21st century along with Tribals (Indian Citiizens) and not over their dead bodies.
The Salwa Judum and Green Hunt is NOT war. It is the COIN-Law & Order dimension of a wider, long term initiative. And I hope we won’t ever have to go to *war* there.
Well written article and compliments on the range of topics that you write in. People in our country don’t have a sense of humour. Expecting political tolerance is too much.
The truth is that there seems be a civil war out there which currently seems far away… but not for too long
Nice post. You try to be on the neutral path but unfortunately, there comes a time when you have to accept either of them; neutrality does not work. I agree that violence by the naxals is absolutely unacceptable; but so is the police atrocities on the poor tribals. I have myself grown up in the tribal belt and have seen these people very closely; you can never think of them as villains. They always portray a class of people who have been left behind in the great Indian race of growth and development. Can we deny that these people bear the maximum brunt of the corruption and the apathy of our babus? Unfortunately, their cause has been hijacked by a bunch of killers and bandits. Again the question arises, why and how? If the government has been receptive towards their grievances, things might not have come to this stage. Urban people will never understand the problem and they will always look at this issue as a deterrent towards the march of prosperous India. Try to break two houses to build a flyover and look at the reaction. The courts will literally murder the government. Yet we are comfortable with the concept of these poor people losing everything; their property, their source of income, even their identity! Even the australian government has come out and apologized for the atrocities committed on the aborigines; though they were themselves settlers. Yet we continue to expect that we can go around treating these poor tribals as dirt! Every issue will have it’s flip side and it is better to avoid discussing these on the open platform without understanding the intricacies of the problem. My two thoughts on your article. However, I continue to be a big fan of your writings and plan to buy your book the next time I visit India.
@Biswajeet
Pretty much no naxalite presence in AP now-a-days.
They have been combed out of AP and have fled to not so developed states with thick forest cover taking advantage of the state borders.But, they do have a strong extortion networy (naxals afterall have a Rs.4000Cr budget)
And yes, AP has seen the massacares, landmines, naxal courts and brutal executions for almost a decade.But now, it has been effectively dealt with.
AP model should be ideally implemented through out the country with the help of a centrally co-ordinated strategy and more importantly, a central force trained interms of the AP Greyhound commandos.
Unfortunately, Chdambaram is either in too much of a hurry to get the mining licenses going or has too much of intellectual arrogance to follow someone elses example.
Point to note is that it was congress that allowed the naxal movement to grow in AP. Even the late CM YSR had a secret agreement with the naxals before coming to power. But, unlike his Congress predecessors, he cleverly laid out a trap for the naxals and ruthlessly eliminated them before they could recover .
@Hades
Well I think the journalistic capabilities of IE to be far superior than A.R.’s. And IE has no bias one way or the other. So it’s evident whom we should trust more.
“one of their electoral partners has been manipulating Maoist violence to overthrow a state government”
well said, and rightly so… at times i think… after the Pancha Ma’kar we now have few more… Ma-Mati-Manush-Mao-Mamata… sorry STATE of affairs, the problem is we still feel that “naari obola” 😛
“one of their electoral partners has been manipulating Maoist violence to overthrow a state government”
well said, and rightly so… at times i think… after the Pancha Ma’kar we now have few more… Ma-Mati-Manush-Mao-Mamata… sorry STATE of affairs, the problem is we still feel that “naari obola” 😛
You are correct my friend…. the problem is that people can’t handle the truth. As far as Ms. Roy is concerned the naxals must be careful because a foolish friend is more dangerous than a wise enemy!!
When both the left and right start beating up on you, you are definitely providing a very useful perspective. I hope you continue to get greater recognition as a moderate with posts like these.
“those who appropriate the word “liberal” for themselves arent too liberal of opposing opinions ” very very true
I hate Arundhati Roy too.. and i know that she takes contrary vews only to be in the limelight. But i must say, if not for her, i would not have known about the oppression of tribal and the whole complex problem. I learned more from this blog and from comments of this article http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?264738 I feel that war is never a solution. We have to deal with the ideologies. We can not use army against Maoists. They keep budding like rakta beejasura.. We can see what is happening in afgan and pakistan.
arnabda
dont bother..if there were people who dint buy your book because of your posts..remember the people who bought because of your comments only..and regarding Ms Roy…she deserves as much mention her career as a actress deserves..not a penny more..
Red Brigades all across the world and in whatever scope of governance have always attempted equitable distribution of wealth. The failure points came when all the wealth has been exhausted and the need turned towards creation of wealth.
Our so called ‘intellectuals’ are seemingly suffering from the ‘romance’ of the methods rather than the passion for objective.
BTW your writings are interesting. Please do keep it up
GB,
You can air your problems some other time. Learn from Ms Roy and back your ideas with strength and conviction. Why cry on our shoulders if someones says something to you.
Look at Ms Roy. This is her response to the bombing of the bus and killing civilians (from Outlook website)
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?265483
Absolutely Inexcusable
“Media reports say that the Maoists have deliberately targeted and killed civilians in Dantewara. If this is true, it is absolutely inexcusable and cannot be justified on any count. However, sections of the mainstream media have often been biased and incorrect in their reportage. Some accounts suggest that apart from SPOs and police, the other passengers in the bus were mainly those who had applied to be recruited as SPOs. We will have to wait for more information. If there were indeed civilians in the bus, it is irresponsible of the government to expose them to harm in a war zone by allowing police and SPOs (carriers of the mantle of all the crimes of Salwa Judum) to use public transport. Also, for a sense of perspective, let’s not forget that right at this moment, in Kalinganagar and Jagatsingpur in Orissa, hundreds of police are firing on unarmed people protesting the corporate takeover of their land”
Amazing logic here:
“… If there were indeed civilians in the bus, it is irresponsible of the government to expose them to harm in a war zone by allowing police and SPOs (carriers of the mantle of all the crimes of Salwa Judum) to use public transport. …”
Chiddu should get Pink colored dresses for CRPF / Police / SPO so that Maoists do not have problems picking them up in the jungle and civilian lives are not lost by mistake. Right, Ms Roy?
I knew Chiddu would mess up.
Great post. Wonder why these Naxal elements can’t be classified as anti-national terrorists and treated like those in Kashmir.
One question to your liberal friend of a friend – what is wrong with Hindutva – you are ashamed of being Hindu, living in India?
Napalm the forests and burn them all!
When I first read this post connecting GB’s book with his political stance, I wondered whether GB was getting a bit too defensive. Then I noticed this comment by Huzefa.
“No relation to this post but your book reads so drawn out and presumptuous. I was trying to read the chapter on wedding where you make a few non-points in some excruciating detail. It is a let down. I was actually looking forward to it ”
The name rang a bell since this is not someone I regularly see at RTDM. I think I remembered where I had seen him last and a quick dekho later, my suspicions were confirmed.
https://greatbong.net/2010/04/08/the-invisible-civil-war/#comment-817383
“Ah! The joys of arm-chair criticism…”
So the person who arm-chair criticizes an arm-chair critic waits till another post on the same topic (Maoist-Ray) to express, quite off topic, how much he disliked GB’s book.
I was wrong. You GB once again stand vindicated. 🙂
I am a regular reader of your blog, though i hardly post any comments. Just wanted to mention today that you r doing a great job.. pls keep it up!
Unfortunately, the irrational ones are usually more vocal everywhere. But a large proportion of silent rational people still exists – who can see the likes of Ms Roy for what she really is.
PS: If it is any consolation, I’ll buy your book right now! 🙂
Bottom line is – modern progressive and shining INdia has no need or space for those millions of people who are encroaching over OUR forests, mountains and river and preventing our MNCs from further developing our ‘nation’.
Why cant these uneducated people who have a zero waste sustenance not understand that their lives are polluting the planet?
Why not just willingly give up thier lands, their rivers, becomes construction workers in cities ? Life is so awesome as construction workers living on the road, defecating in public, developing TB and other diseases – that just rocks …
Sigh when will we have another Dharavi in mumbai ? With stinking Tribals – cleaning up our trash – recyling our plastic.
Go Dharavi !
In most other countries, inflammatory writings and speeches of the kind Arundhati Roy indulges in, would call for her to be arraigned and prosecuted for inciting anti-national activities and sedition. In India she becomes the champion of utterly vacuous ‘liberals’ – the kind whose knowledge and understanding of modern or even medieval history, present day geopolitical realities, affairs of state and even various discredited ideologies is either non-existent or superficial at best. These faux liberals, brought up on poorly crafted fables and fictitious anecdotes thrown their way by the likes of Ms. Roy, then start acting like Kalidasa, trying to chop down the very branch on which they are perched. Meanwhile, possibly the most vacuous, inept and wimpish administration that India has had for quite some time now, keeps fiddling while large numbers of lives are lost and swathes of territory are taken over by the Naxalites & Maoists.
After reading your views…….. I will definitely buy your book
one question which my simpleton mind sometimes fails to understand is – even though the war of Naxalites is against the State , why kill military personnel. isn’t it a sweeping generalisation that if one has a problem with the state ,one should kill the military people of that state. I am sure not all the military people of those areas commit excesses on the tribes.
And in this new massacre they have killed civilians also.
In the media I sense anger over the fact that they killed civilians ‘also’ . why , aren’t the military people ,men ????
At one end we defend the legalities of whether death penalty should be handed out by the courts and at other end we blow up the very machinery of the law ??!!!
GB, a very relevant post. Have shared my thoughts on the same subject at http://mitratanmoy.blogspot.com/2010/05/33-page-article-wanted.html
GB, I agree with your frustration that some people call you “Hindutva” while some may call you its exact opposite viz “pseudo secular”. That is the trouble in India ,we are all so opinionated that we can’t accept neutrality in political stance. But I personally feel that the more we become politically neutral the better the democracy will function . Blind faith of any party or political stance is “extremist” . We need to redefine “liberalism” . My personal view on “liberalism” is one who respects truth . Simple .Truth is final, everything else is subordinate and subjective. We should acknowledge truth whether it comes out of the mouth of an “extremist” or a “liberalist”. But sadly in Television and Print media all opinions are somewhat “sponsored” . This blogging media is better in that sense.
How I wish Congress is led by Narsimha Rao now (the greatest PM India ever had) instead of bunch of socialist jokers and their two socialist masters – who communicate to their cabinet ministers thru their socialist pet dogs in the media. One of these jokers, who used to roar in Rao’s cabinet, now only mewls. How proper guidance and vision create wonders!!
aww.. so now neither psecs nor Hindutva people will buy greatbongs book. Just for the information of the psecs, Greatbong is NOT Hindutva. Now C’mon go buy his book.
W00t! Arnab_da is the “king of the hill” !
Amidst the insanity, one might concur that it would be a comic respite to send “Dhuti” on a sabbatical to Dantewada. If she manages to survive “cannibalisation” well then, what can I say, she would love her new toilet habits. As for the butchers at large, the solution for the red menace is what you get when you mix a wee li’l yellow into it (red) , cheers !
“I do not read Greatbong’s blog because he is Hindutva” : Seriously !!! By God ki kasam …..how did you manage that reputation !!!!?????
now you have to live up to it …… maybe a Shoshaan Kali poster on your blog profile would be an appropriate way to begin ……
@GreatBong: You are one of the most neutral and unbiased blogger out there, unless it’s about Shahrukh Khan 🙂
@ BalalSangh: That was very informative. Do you write your own blog too?
here’s another shade of the issue;
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Raman-Singh-lambasts-human-rights-activists/articleshow/5955331.cms
“A dark resignation that your life can be ended by a flying shrapnel.”
Choose between birth control, cholera, or shrapnel.
Baaki saab bakwas hai.
Retired intellectuals /professionals like Judges, IAS officers, senior Army officers and Nationalists should become more connected and voice their views, and take initiatives to guide the society.
Any Corporate like NIIT,Aptech etc should go to them and teach the wonders of blogs, twitter, facebook etc. free of cost.
An online discussion between such people would be so insightful …we are sorely missing them on internet.
@sunny.. You sound so funny.. Those people dunno even to read and write.. You are asking them to blog and tweet.. The government should first understand what those tribals want. If they want to be left alone to their sweet ways with nature.. So be it.. Don’t force them.. But build schools there with integrated residential and shopping complexes for the benefit of teachers working there.. Give both monetary and non-monetary incentives to teachers who are to be posted to those centres.. A set of highly motivated and dedicated teachers should be created for teaching these children. Make the education free for those children and educate them on modern society and its benefits.
Education will definitely make them out of their shells and encourage development in their areas gradually. As more and more people get educated, they would be able to see the world outside and decide for them whether it is good or not.
btw GB, what do you think of Michael Moore ? I used to admire him a lot earlier.After seeing the likes of roy i feel americans who dislike him have a point.Indians hating roy but praising moore is plain hypocrisy
Greatbong: you write well and you obviously have a loyal band of readers given the number of comments you receive on your posts. I like the fact that you do not delete the comments that are critical of you.
I however, do feel that there is a sexist tone to your writing at times which is disappointing. Provocative and satirical you maybe but unbiased and neutral you are definitely not! It is probably the reason why people read you and react to your blog.
Fantastic work again, GB. The Arundhati Roy’s of the world will always talk. And you a Hindutva.. sheesh.. Some really “smart” people out there
Maybe Ms. Roy should go across to the families of the policemen and repeat what she said. People taking up arms to kill security forces, cannot be pardoned as poor people who don’t know what they’re doing.
That’s the most common excuse to the question why dosen’t the government take action on a war footing.
Think about it ! If Greatbong were a Hindutva advocate, the media would have crucified him by now.
The reason why most of the English Language Media is cold towards Greatbong’s book is because he does not kowtow to the media’s twisted, anti-Indian agenda but instead maintains a neutral, independent, objective stance.
That is why GreatBong readers respect him even though we may strongly disagree with him – because we know he does not sell himself for pecuniary rewards (unlike most of the EL Media and pseudo-intellectuals who have prostituted themselves for a few pieces of silver).
These days, anyone who stands up for India’s interests (and opposes the totalitarian ideologies who seek to make India subservient to anti-Indian powers) is routinely labelled Hindutva (as though it is a pejorative term).
Ooooooo… psychological blackmail to silence the Indophiles ! Too bad it doesn’t work with real men with balls of steel.
Excellent insights, BalalSangh Parivar. Lot of people here act is if some Arundhati bashing helps with their bowel movement – she is irrelevant in the larger scheme of things. Most urban people are utterly ignorant of what is actually going on, so the least we can do is to try and understand the issues.
Central and State administrations will have to be extremely shrewd and patient (whether in the medium or long term, not sure) to deal with this. And not to mention, committed.
Don’t worry! I think most people understand the compulsions in Politics as you do including myself. But looking at your profile, since you have political ambitions and feel like doing something for the country, then my advice for you is not to show your cards away. Otherwise the maximum number of votes that you may get is 5000+ which is the number of readers of your blog. Whatever is already written down can be easily washed off (as you know people’s memory is short) and is instantly possible to join any side you wish. For instance, if it’s the Maoists, then you just need to say that right from your college days you were inspired by socialism.
I believe that the Maoists were very much toothless before 2004. The 5 years of UPA-CPI rule facilitated this enormous arms and infrastructure sale to these Maoists via China Businessmen with chineese government support.
This is ridiculous. I don’t like government taking money from my pocket in the name of tax and use it for plans that I care about, and I hate the govt for this. But does that give me right to pick a gun and start shooting any govt servant/employee I see?
Everybody is pissed with the govt for some reason or the other and if everybody takes the violent approach. I am not an expert on their grievances but in any case I believe the rule of law need to be applied properly and people involved in these massacres should be tried as mass murderers. Having said that, I truly believe (as I am sure everyone else does too) that govt should make sure they are a part of the growth that India has seen in recent years. This is my take on the violent tribal.
As for the Maoists, they just follow Mao’s ideology of government and because of their violent means are absolute criminals and should be treated accordingly.
GB, I have always found your views to be carefully put to be as neutral as possible and I respect you for that. I also admire you for the fact that you haven’t change your stance just to increase the sales of your books. Your writings are words of wisdom (and something to think about without taking an extreme view) 🙂 and I wish you the best for that.
As per some comments above, I have almost always loved your comic and light posts but I think your analytic/writing skill lies in political/social issues where you excel. Do not let the critics affect you in any way and be sure that there are hundreds (if not thousands) like us who like to read you and want to continue reading you.
Correction!!! read “…use it for plans that I do not care about”
I have an idea :
Why don’t we use Arundhati Roy and her intellectual ultra-leftist comrades as minesweepers for all police vehicles passing through Maoist territory?
It will be the best use for them, and let us see how sympathetic Arundhati and her ilk remain when they become the first target of Maoist landmines.
As for Arundhati Roy, I think she is a very dangerous person for the future of the state of India and should not be taken lightly. Propaganda is a huge tool and with the rate at which I have seen left liberal (or pseudo liberal) population growing, I am actually afraid the left thinking will become common notion and then then the RIGHT thing.
She seems like just a silly woman and can not actually do any harm but then I am sure they thought the same about naxals 20 years ago and look what we have.
GB is giving the mainstream media a complex by writing such superb articles.
I was wondering – How long will it be before some clueless/Leftie reader will write a comment that goes like this:
“GB, please stop writing on such serious issues that don’t affect us. Do stop writing about such issues you don’t know much about. Leave topics like Naxal violence to Arundirty Roy. GB, you must write on more important issues like TV shows, cricket, movies that are your forte.
For example, please write about “Desi Girls” which is apna Indian version of ‘The Simple Life’. Instead of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, the desi show has Kashmera Shah, Monica Bedi and 6 other intelligent Lefties. See this article:
http://movies.rediff.com/report/2010/may/22/preeti-aurora-reviews-desi-girls-first-show.htm
Write an article, baby. Just do it.”
Hah. I don’t always agree with what you say, Greatbong, but I keep coming back because I respect your willingness & ability to think for yourself & think things through without relying on sound bites & talking points. Keep up the good work & get that book on Amazon somehow.
Onto Maoists: one huge point that gets lost in all the noise is the tragic fact that modern society simply has not found a way for conventional forces to defeat a sufficiently committed & reasonably well funded guerrilla force. Be they Maoists, Al Qaeda, Taliban, whoever; all the drones in the world, all the raids in the world are simply not working.
This is not so much an issue of brutality versus human rights versus what not. Of course the Indian govt needs to maintain a monopoly on force in order to be a meaningful government. Of course the Maoists have trapped a large number of oppressed tribals into their mafia economy. In fact, picking tendu leaves for the Maoists earns the tribals less than the agricultural minimum wage!
But *how* to combat the Maoists? What are the best ways to combat them?
Why is no-one following the money? Why not go after the contractors who buy tendu leaves from the Maoists & choke off their sources of funding? Where are the Maoists getting their weapons from? Where is the human intelligence (& I mean that in the “humint” sense of covert & undercover ops)? Why keep following the same failed strategy over & over again, which just angers the tribals more & results in more Maoist recruiting?
Recommend that Kites is shown to all captures Maoists in the jail again and again, that will bring down the revolution
Recommend that Kites is shown to all captures Maoists in the jail again and again, that will bring down the revolution
Long time lurker and first time commenter here.
The reason why you are perceived as right-wing is because you are a hyper-nationalist. In that respect, you are at the core no different from your namesake Mr.Goswami, except that you are much more sophisticated and have a much better comamnd over language and rhetoric, perhaps among the very best we have in this country. I myself am a part of the ‘Indian media’ (I work for a media body which often comes in your crosshairs and sometimes for valid reasons I should add) and that is the reason why despite virtually every pressman worth his/her salt reading RTDM and discussing it with their colleagues, they will not give you the coverage they will give say an Amit Varma, Meenakshi Madhavan, Sidin Vadukut or even Fake IPL Player. I confess that is the reason I personally did not cover your release, though I could have if I wanted to. You are the kind of person who, with your aggressive hyper-nationlism, as evidenced by your diatribes against India’s most erudite and selfless intellectual Arundhati Roy, is exactly the kind of person who most of us would like to avoid, even though we may grudgingly appreciate what you write. Give me a harmless person like Chetan Bhagat anyday than someone like you.
So GB while staying true to your colors might get applause from your devoted coterie of fans, it will not help you to reach out to the masses and make the kind of sales that will make you a household name. It is a pity because you are a rare talent.
@ Atul:
Thank you! I am thinking about blogging too…. but my job takes me off the grid for many days.
@ Nanda Kishore:
Tribals of East MP/Chhatisgarh are not just pictures in anthropology text-book covers for me…. ‘coz of my work I have been to those areas and have interacted extensively with tribals/tribal origin folks. And the place I hail from is right beside ancient (as in Dating from Paleolithic Age) tribal lands. There are certain people (in media/academic circles) who have vested interests in providing a distorted if not totally false picture of tribal life. It’s not hard to see why but let’s leave it for now……
PS: On that note a specimen of the above, an especially sneaky and mealy-mouthed one at that, was on rediff yesterday. I remember a book of hers which some try to pass off as a major anthropological work….. lies and non sequitors and circular logic and straw-man arguments and outright falsehoods galore.
@ Anon above:
Amen brother. Amen.
Forget jati, forget Blat, forget WASP/Boston Brahmins, forget Guanxi….. the worst kind of old-boy network/cabal exists in the schools of journalism-press clubs (and their brother-from-another-mother, the arts academia). I have two friends in the media, one has sold his soul and is now an example of 100% Pseudo-Leftist slime….. wonder if I still can consider him a friend even after all these years. The other still religiously holds to the Truth and refuses to suck commie c0(k or follow some knucklehead knickerwaalah’s uvaacha or fold for a UPA fixer and is therefore….ummmmm…. “friendless” out there.
Sigh. Kaliyug.
Dear Arnob Da
In a truly functioning democracy, violence as a means of expressing opinion is unacceptable. But, is it not factually correct that the government is deploying operation green hunt to grab resource rich land from tribals, undemocratically?? If my question is answered affirmatively, then how do we expect poor, un-educated tribals to resort to democratic measures against the government???
Under such circumstances, is it not a natural, albeit, an uncivilized and inhuman act from the rebels???
To quote Ramchandra Guha ” It is unfortunate that innocent tribals and other civilians are caught in the ongoing violence in Dantewada and other parts of eastern and central India. We reiterate our consistent plea to the government to reach out to the tribals and the other local communities in these areas through tangible confidence-building measures, including the announcement and implementation of a policy that recognises the constitutional rights of the tribals in the notified areas.”
anindya
hi arnab…. i like reading ur blog… dont let the pseudo intellectuals get to u …. keep writing on political issues…. i like ur clear cut approach…. ur thoughts gel with those of the common man who goes about his business and does his little bit for the world…. pseudo intellectuals can never be like us coz tney r good at little besides putting a spoke in the wheel
@ Greatbong….
Hindutva you??? lol…from personal experience you are probarbly anti-hindutva if anything…actually this conclusion by the indian media stems from their extreme bias against anything pro-hindutva/indian
The media in india is swimming in so much saudi money they should be called “saudi-seculars” instead of pseudo seculars
Not a big surprise, if the saudis can buy at least 7% of the US equity market then the indian media/politicians are chickenfeed. Right now the indian state is facing a murderous assault from all angles. Being the only remotely democratic free society in that region, the chinese or islamists will do anything to destroy it.
We should actually hang the corrupt media if we have any hope of survival.
Shouri is absolutely bang on target. Did you read this Wall Street Journal article exposing the shady Indian media?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124158152250690795.html
The English Language Media is mostly aligned/controlled by powerful vested interest groups (or directly funded by Middle-Eastern Petro-dollars or Western Church groups) and while most of the Hindi/Regional Language Media can be purchased for a price.
That is why GreatBong’s blog is so valuable because it plays the critical role of an independent, objective media. More power to GB !!!
Talking of your book, Vicky bought it off Flipkart ten days ago when I was ill and I read it through with a vague sense of deja vu without being able to actually place blog posts that might have discussed this stuff before.
You know why? I’d read the book from Dipali before, I was just confused because of the fever. LOL
Anyway, it was a great read. Even if I do think you make too much of a fuss over the bride getting more gifts. She needs all the incentive she can get, you know.
@GB – Thank you.
@BalalSangh – Very informative comments – an absolute eye opener. You MUST start a blog. Do inform the readers of this blog once you do.
Excellent Article…Highly recommended to anyone who wants to know how easily indian media can be bought. They are literally pimps..maybe even worse (if thats possible). A pimp does not do much damage, but these guys are killing us.
Just imagine the kind of money flowing into NDTV India to keep a loss making operation running and expanding year after year. The Nehruvian Saudi-secular journos like Barkha Dutt would be out on the street if their funding source was cut off. Just think about why we do not attack & destroy Pakistan despite a ready army and a supportive population.
Someone in the govt/media is pulling the strings and paying big bucks to keep india the caged tiger that it is. We have the fangs and the claws but are not allowed to use them by the ringmaster. Why did Sharm-El-Sheikh happen, who funds the multi billion dollar congress party ?? How could BJP lose an Election after 26/11 when it should have strolled in??
Arnab is just a Indian Nationalist, and not a Hindutva supporter.
He would have been a Hindutva supporter, but like most middle class educated Indians, he doest know anything about Hindu Dharma.
@ Shouri.
Money may not be the only reason. The universities in India, especially the humanities streams are extremely Marxist influenced. The Islamists use the leftist to support their cause (by playing the minority and underdog card), you Hindutva poeple just have to learn to use them the same way, bbecause in the global scheme of things, you people are the real underdogs.
“saudi secular”… hahah..that was funny (and true)..
nice term shouri. i m going to use it more often now. we really have saudi-seculars in india. i won’t be surprised if some day, dawood becomes a cabinet minister. give it a few more years.
Anonymous said the best…
‘The reason why you are perceived as right-wing is because you are a hyper-nationalist. In that respect, you are at the core no different from your namesake Mr.Goswami, except that you are much more sophisticated and have a much better comamnd over language and rhetoric, perhaps among the very best we have in this country.’
You would have no problem if Arundhati Roy was a version of Tamil Film Director Shankar who has his heroes fight for the common man (usually by killing/assassinating corrupt officials.) But for Roy, State is the villain…not the byproducts of the state – the bureaucracy, the political class, pandering MNCs etc.
You are not right wing…but State and the political boundaries are holy cows. Your reactions to questioning the holy cows are visceral and vitriolic…how some extreme right wing cases like Togadia/Muttalik will react to Islam.
You all sound the same…communications from Taliban (about Amerika), Bajrang Dal (about Muslims/Islam/anti-nationals) and Arnab Goswami (Arundhati Roy) sound the same.
I am concerned about the physical safety of Arundhati Roy…your rabble rousing is enough to kick start a violent ‘eliminate the anti-national’ campaign against her.
# anonymous
going by Arundhati’s propaganda…. and hypocrisy, she should be the first one to invite Naxals to shoot herself.
That is if she is really honest.
# rk
going by Arundhati’s propaganda…. and hypocrisy, she should be the first one to invite Naxals to shoot herself. That is if she is really honest.
What exactly is her hypocrisy? Last I checked the word means ‘saying something and believing or doing the opposite’. If she is hypocritical how can be she be honest? One cannot be both.
About propaganda…the whole country – the middle class, bloggers, MSM and so on – is against her. She is anti-national, she should be prosecuted, she should be thrown to Pakistan and so on. So I guess her propaganda is not working. Her supporters – the liberal leftists or pseudo-secular are less than 5% of the middle class.
Look at the comments in this blog…about 90% are against Arundhati Roy…the only missing element is an open call to physically eliminate her.
Darling anonymous,
“the only missing element is an open call to physically eliminate her.”
“I am concerned about the physical safety of Arundhati Roy…your rabble rousing is enough to kick start a violent ‘eliminate the anti-national’ campaign against her.”
Thats the deal isnt it. You would love for *that* to be here. But it ISNT here. That worries you. Hey how come these people are just criticizing her—so let’s come here and inflame ! Typical Arundhati zombie behavior.
BTW The only person who is jumping up and down and salivating at physical elimination is Ms. Roy as her congratulations quoted in the post shows.
During the Vietnam War Jane Fonda, daughter of THE Henry Fonda, darling of Joe-Sixpack (due to the Barbarella Zero-G strip scene) went to North Vietnam, “inspected” the NVA’s Potemkin Villages and got herself photographed wearing an NVA helmet….. and get this, beside Anti-Aircraft guns that were shooting down American pilots. And her report- “All Izz Well. Evil Evil America. Cuddly cuddly poor poor Vietnam”.
The moral aspect of the Vietnam War aside, Right vs Wrong aside, burning napalm sticking on kids (as the USMC marching song goes) ….. how does an action like this look? I mean, this was no Sophie Scholl who courageously stood against the Nazi regime….. Fonda-behen was just a dumb bimbette seduced by lies or worse, trying to hog some limelight with some soundbites and jump back to her privileged life once the grand show was over. Suzanne Roy is even worse than this….. she is street smart attention wh0re, a page-3 social activist, a Professional bleeding heart.
I mean any issue crops up and boom she appears with another rambling verbose essay, get photographed at the scene, drone on about how concerned she was about this all along….. WTF?! Something doesn’t smell right in Denmark. However, she has enough friends and leftists/pseudo-leftists in the media to build her up. Anyone read N. Ram’s interview with Roy “Scimitars in the Sun”…. I bet a year’s pay that it was all scripted and staged to build her an intellectual image. I have heard her speak, I know people who know her for years and SHE IS NO INTELLECTUAL, NO DEEP THINKER.
Pah…. to think I bought a hardcopy of “God of Small Things” when it was released! Well, at least it was a “kut-price kaapy” from one of those hawkers that accost you when you stop at a red signal. 🙂
Two things. An infection in the body has to be strongly dealt with by the best of doctors available. No point in letting it fester. However, here the government and the Congress both (within itself and with each other) are not coherent in the response to the infection.
Intellectuals like Ms Roy and others may have seen more than me and I might not be the right person to comment on their attitudes, but it only because of the state that she abhors she is free to write and/or say anything and get away with it. God Forbid, if the Maoists form a government, people of her ilk who speak against the government policies would be tortured to death.
I think giving some dole to Ms. Roy (Chairperson of some committee or Padmashree, Bharatranta) will help us get rid of her nonsense.
I feel that this ‘war’ is something that beneifts both the state and the naxals immensly, the people be damned. the problem with people like Ms.Roy lies in the fact that they are jaundiced in thier viewpoints and strive on publicity. People like Binayak sen, Himanshu has suffered a great more at the hands of the state, but have been fair in their assessment of the situation…
When GB said Arundhati Roy is just a Rakhi Sawant with a Booker and a laptop, I thought I had never heard a better description of Ms. Roy. Now I have to disagree – we have no right to insult Rakhi Sawant like this… she at least looks good from certain angles.
Why are we so concerned about that anarcho-primitivist Arundhati Roy? She lives in a free country with free speech rights. All she does is express an opinion. It’s not the word of God. Also, remember that she writes literature. That’s not the same as journalism.
The gruesome act of killing 76 CRPF personnel by the Naxals in Dante-Wada and thereafter the a few civilians in the same district, has kind of given a conclusive edge to the school of thoughts that justify use of force to curb the homegrown insurgency. But even in the shadow of such tangible evidence to justify the complete wipe of gun wielding extremists or the home grown & possibly more adverse form of terrorism, a few including myself are bound to have a ambivalent approach towards such men and the situation as a whole. One might wonder as to why would someone even think twice before supporting use of force to eliminate the extremists who without blinking an eye have taken so many innocent lives over the years, the massacre of 76 CRPF men just being the most recent of their bizarre uncalled for acts. Here is another take on the whole conflict.
http://brijeshrsyadav.blogspot.com/2010/04/state-vs-naxals-those-dying-are-same.html
usually I never post comments but I love reading your posts and wanted to let you know that even after a hectic daily schedule and a handful 18 month old to manage whenever I get any time the first thing I do is read your posts to get the real unbiased opinion ….you are definitely doing a great job,keep it up……..
Hi,
Here is an interesting argument for the “exploited tribal” – I offer it becuase the person making it is v much from the Establishment, in contrast to Ms Roy. The gentleman is Mr Rammohan, ex DG, BSF and a very much a hands on CI warrior having done stints in Assam Kashmir etc.
From an interview with Shekhar Gupta, Ind Exp.
Regards
S
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/crpf-dg-should-see-force-fully-trained-motivated…-does-nothing-dishonourable/623268/0
Excerpt Follows.
E.N. Rammohan:
I don’t think the answer to that problem is in a military solution. The basic problem here is that the adivasis are the people who have been pushed into the forests. Two issues are there. One is land, the other is forest produce. For instance, in Andhra Pradesh, the upper castes do not let the lower castes take any land. The Land Ceiling Legislation was passed in the ’50s but it’s yet to be enforced in Andhra Pradesh and many other states in India. The only states to have enforced it are Kashmir and Kerala. In Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah did it because most of the landlords were Hindus and the serfs were Muslims. In Kerala, the land holdings are not very large because there is very little flat land available. But by and large the owners were upper caste. After a legislation was passed in 1957 in the state, stating that after 12 years, the ownership of the land passes to the tenant farmer, at one shot all the upper castes lost their land. There is no cause there now for insurgency. So, when the Naxals tried to spread to Kerala, they did not succeed.
Shekhar Gupta: What will be your advice now to Mr Chidambaram?
E.N. Rammohan: My point is, what is the problem in enforcing the Land Ceiling Legislation? And what is the justice that somebody should have 1,000 acres and 1,500 acres and somebody should have nothing? That’s very wrong. All human beings are born equal. I don’t want to live in a Communist government, but then, they were the only people who held the hands of these poor people. Can you blame them if they continue to hold their hands? That is the main issue.
The problem concerning forest produce is a little different. The tribals collect forest produce, small things like honey, tamarind, etc., and bring it to the market where the bania sits. And what does that fellow do? He gives the tribal Rs 100 and himself makes Rs 1,000. That poor fellow cannot read and write. So he enslaves him for life. He keeps on collecting produce, selling it at a profit. The farmer does not even get a pittance for his labour.
GB, you’re not entirely Hindutva: you’re economically right-wing, socially centrist. And you have stronger views on the authority of the State than some Hindutva supporters.
I’d say you’re a new-age Hindutva.
In the Indian Express interview posted by Shishir, I read this statement by E.N. Rammohan:
“The Land Ceiling Legislation was passed in the ’50s but it’s yet to be enforced in Andhra Pradesh and many other states in India. The only states to have enforced it are Kashmir and Kerala. In Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah did it because most of the landlords were Hindus and the serfs were Muslims. ”
Oh really? That justifies the Islamic land-grab in Kashmir?
Taking land away from the Hindu owners and handing it on a platter to Muslims is outright communal and fundamentalist.
Yet in Saudi-secular India, this religious discrimination against Hindus is perfectly acceptable to everyone. Not one Saudi-secular pinheaded Indian protests at this travesty and everyone thinks it is ok, except of course, the much-reviled Hindutva nationalists whose leader Dr.Syama Prasad Mookerjee laid down his life to protest the travesty in Jammu & Kashmir.
Usurping Hindu land and gifting it away to Muslims already cost us Kashmir and Bengal (the two-thirds of Bengal that became East Pakistan).
Had Hindu lands remained in Hindu hands, India would be undivided and strong. When will we learn?
P.S: From 1948 to today, Hindu lands and property in Bangladesh have been snatched away under the Enemy Property Act (Vested Property Act) and donated to Muslims. The law in its implementation has been seen as a major driver behind the reduction of the Bangladeshi Hindu population, which has declined from an estimated 30% in 1947, to 17% in 1965 to less than 10% today, representing a loss of atleast 11 million Bengali Hindus.
Do the Bengali readers on this forum have the guts to fight against this blatant Jihadi Anschluss? Or are you going to keep talking about Ilish Maach and Saurav Ganguly? Atleast the Hindutva revivalists have the guts to take on the Jihadis head-on and pay the ultimate price.
P.P.S: I agree with Rishi Khujur. GB is only an Indian Nationalist, not a Hindutva ideologue. He would have to try *very* hard to become a Hindutva ideologue. First, he would need to increase his knowledge about Hindu Dharma. Only then can one identify himself with being a Hindu. Otherwise, one remains condemned to be ahistorical and prone to forgetfulness – forgetful of one’s own identity and raison d’etre.
@ Pratap Rao
http://voi.org/20100524438/editorial/editorial/editorial:naxal-maoistnexuswithislamistterrorgroups.html
Negatives and hate-mongers, perfect bedfellows.
But its still a case of teh shark and the remora.
GB-the-right-winger ( 🙂 ),
good article. As usual, it is good to know that you are getting what you deserved – the leftist hatred and Arundhati-an trolls. Kiss some leftist rear-end dude. Those people are so desperate, they are leaving you open hint in the comment section of your blog. Just kiss the bloody rear, every door will be open. If you do not get that, then how dare you hateful fear-mongering Hindutva-badi right-winger? 🙂
I saw your piece on pioneer today morning. well-written I must say.
A roy is a living proof that a mix of Bengali and Malayali blood can be very destabising. In her own words, she does not find any difference between writing a novel and journalism. (http://97.74.65.51/Printable.aspx?ArtId=14737) In a sense, we can agree. Works like “God of small things”, Kashmir’s seccession and justification for Maoist violence – all are fine works of imagination, follows same style, imagine same kind villains and paid for. Anytime I see her article about land grab, I am reminded of the land grab case against Pradip Krishen, her hubby (http://www.india-today.com/itoday/12071999/mp.html). Anytime I hear of her “activism” and “standing up for truth”, I remember how she stood up for truth by screaming against booker and then accepted it a few weeks later. Anytime she writes about her continuous battle against state’s might, I remember how the embattled activist charged with contempt of court declared to take the suffering of Indian jails and then bail out of it next day by paying the fine. While green hunt is accused of land grabbing in Chhattisgarh, she has not spoken a word against Singur/Nandigram, after all, Karat is a relative, however distant it might be. She is a fine specimen of leftist super-human species. And another shameful addition to a long list of self-defeating self-loathing coconuts (may be nuts would be just fine, a bit american though).
One more thing:
About neutrality. Face it. You have a strong opinion, you can not be neutral. Either take a side, or declare your own side. Neutrality is for those who fear to voice their opinion.
Rishi Kujur
Thanks for the revealing link on the Maoist-Islamist nexus.
Looks like all the enemies of India are actively collaborating to destroy what is left of India, while at the same time, unsuspecting Indians are being lulled into complacence (by the media and Saudi-secular elite) just like goats being led to the slaughterhouse are lulled in complacence by feeding them with green grass.
Do you know about the nexus between the ISI, Islamists, ‘Aman Ki Asha’ and powerful sections of the Indian Media? Here’s a relevant excerpt from Kanchan Gupta’s insightful column today in “The Pioneer”:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/257542/The-secret-diary-of-Hamid-Mir.html
“The fact remains that Hamid Mir is more than just chief of Geo TV; he is also in cahoots with Pakistani intelligence agencies and has strong links with organisations like the TTP which are considered ‘strategic assets’ by sections of the Islamabad-Rawalpindi political-military-jihad complex. What is also of some importance for us is that Geo TV belongs to Independent Media Corporation, which owns the Jang group of newspapers. And as we all know, the Jang group is the Pakistani partner of a well-known Indian group of newspapers in a joint venture called ‘Aman ki Asha’ which aims to promote cross-border harmony and peace.
It would be perfectly in order to ask how can a media group that has die-hard Islamists with links to terrorist organisations vehemently opposed to peace with India in senior positions be a trans-border peace partner. It would also serve some purpose if we were to be told as to why the Jang group was selected over other newspaper groups or independent dailies like the Daily Times, which has played a leading role in exposing and outing Hamid Mir. Chinese whispers are not exactly reliable. But there could be some truth to the story doing the rounds that it was neither aman nor asha that prompted the partnership between the two media groups.”
Aaaaaaaarrrrrrgggh!!!!!!! Great Bong Maoists have struck West Bengal again around 120 feared dead after train track sabitage through blast!!!
The Cambodia route is showing up earlier than thought.
This will be the Naxals downfall thoug. With such a high level of bloodletting, the Hindu mindset will reject the Naxal movement before it goes maisntream…and that will be the saving grace.
But unfortunately more innocent blood will flow…and strategic enemies will benefit immensely.
This post could not have been more timely. I just woke up this morning to read the news that these Chinese-funded Maoist Terrorists have killed another 150 Indians in the train attack in Jhargram, West Midnapore, West Bengal.
Can someone compile a list of all terror attacks by these Communist terrorists?
Kujhur, can you make a website with this data similar to Bengal Genocide ?
Arnab – This quite clearly was a post meant to address the sort of Image that the Indian media has of you (reactions to which you must have encountered during promotion of MIHYAP).I believe you possess a fairly balanced point-of-view and your articles are very finely nuanced and engaging(the post on Mamta becoming more left than the CPM was par-excellence and spot-on).While it would be simply preposterous to call you “Right-Wing”, you certainly do display streaks of being Anti-Left in your posts (understandable as you had a first-hand view of the rot that was inflicted in Bengal on account of leftist ideologies).It also speaks volumes about how skewed towards the left our polity is,when an essentially centrist observer such as you,is branded as Right-Wing.
@ Ein Inder in Deutschland
Wer sind sie? Schreiben Sie zu mir, wenn sie nicht, ich glaube, sie sind.
What makes you think I made Bengalgenocide website?
Hey People ,
In case you have not already read it , this week’s TOI Crest contains an excerpt from this article of Greatbong.
[link]http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/getpage.aspx?pageid=15&pagesize=&edid=&edlabel=TCRM&mydateHid=29-05-2010&pubname=&edname=&publabel=TOI[/link]
Hey people ,
In case you dont know it already , this article of greatbong’s
is in TOI crest of this week
http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/getpage.aspx?pageid=15&pagesize=&edid=&edlabel=TCRM&mydateHid=29-05-2010&pubname=&edname=&publabel=TOI
oops …sorry for multiple comment .
Mamta had raised this Maoist Frankenstein to fight the CPI M cadres.
Its like a Dog fight between two road side romeos for a woman who hates both of them.
Rakhi Sawant with a Booker and Laptop has come out albeit a bit late. Perhaps the response in the media would have been a bit strong had she said something like this right after any of the Dantewada massacre in the last few weeks.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/arundhati-backs-maoists-dares-authorities-to-arrest-her/628935/
Its funny how she continue criticizing the State and grabs media attention for doing nothing but romanticizing violence (not struggle) and no action is taken against her. Is it the tolerance of the Indian State by the virtue of its so called democratic principles (I doubt) or is it just that the State doesn’t care? It seems she is giving new meanings to the word Intellectual,unfortunately!!
Hey Arnab (as I figured out that’s your real name)
>>However it has to be established for every insurgent in this country that you cannot, just cannot get away, by killing policemen and civilians no matter what your justification for the act is and that there will be consequences of doing that.
Kudos to you. There are very few people who get that bottom line. I think just the way Ms.Roy is hogging the media with her ‘stance’, people who are against it get a bit lost in what she says rather than getting their concepts clear on the statement you closed your post with.
I am pretty sure there are plenty who share your view.
Thanks for showing the balls to call spade a spade.ur admirers wont stop emptying the bookshelf of ur work n dnt think about Roy fanboys.they are out of money after buying jhola and “intellectual” attire from janpath market.