Justice For SSR

Sushant Singh Rajput is unlikely to get justice. Why, you ask? Simple: Because the same factor that set the "Justice For SSR" ball rolling will derail the movement. And that factor is Us.

Sushant Singh Rajput

Have you ever wondered why the Palghar Sadhu Lynching incident didn't kickstart a mass movement of protest but the death of a 34-year-old actor did? Again, simple: It had nothing to do with "Oh Hindu Sadhus therefore ignored" (though that was definitely there), but the heinous, cold-blooded, long-in-the-making and utterly, absolutely ruthless manner in which a celebrity with a boy-next-door image was surrounded by a group of rich and powerful and pushed to a dark corner from which there was no escape except a long last fall over the edge into oblivion, and subsequently the media-police-politician-bollywood-underworld nexus that worked like a scarily well-oiled machinery to hush up the case, which reminded the country about the Dec 2012 atrocity in Delhi and roused the nation's collective conscience. It was, simply put, a question: "If such a terrible thing can happen to Sushant, then what hope do we commonfolk have?" It was a repeat act of the question that the country had asked itself at the time of Nirbhaya. This time, it was Sushant.

A major, major clean-up of the viper's den that bollywood has become has been overdue. Anyone not conforming to the rules is given a gentle push over the edge, a figurative hand in the back, and the rest is taken care of police investigations that find nothing suspicious, politicians who orchestrate their cadres in the guise of supportive fans, and media stooges who already have shiny, spanking-new clean chits out and waving in the air, pouring the milk of "child in a man's body" and "so much humanitarian work" and "weeps when he hears a 'lori' song and has to be consoled by his mum" on the blood of innocents dripping from the hands of the khans, the bhatts, the kapoors and the johars. Divya Bharti and Sridevi were drunk, Jiah Khan and Sushant and Parveen Babi were depressed... Same screenplay, different victims.

And this is where the secret of their escape route lies: the ability to orchestrate a whitewashing-and-hoodwinking campaign that has us eating out of their hands time and time again. We will forget all about Sushant the moment the next bachchan / srk / salman / ranbir kapoor film hits the theaters because to us, celebrating the glory of our stars who care two hoots about us matters more than innocent lives nipped in the bud in the most monstrous manner possible and justice and punishment...until the next dead body appears, hanging from the ceiling or drowned in a bathtub.

But remember one thing: the next guy or girl who falls victim to these hungry predators coming out of the scummy cesspool of unlimited power could be someone you love. I hope your breathless anticipation of the next bachchan / srk / salman / ranbir / deepika movie remains the same at that moment of utter despair.

P.S.: Here are some snaps of bollywood's A-listers with brothers Annel Mussarat and Nabeel Mussarat, two of pakistan's richest and most powerful businessmen, who often act as go-betweens between pakistan's ISI and the rich and the famous, esp of the Indian variety.
"Nothing wrong in being clicked with some businessmen, even if they're from pakistan," you say? Well, do remember that that is exactly how dawood ibrahim had dug his tentacles deep inside bollywood in the 1980s.

In Pictures below: Pakistani Businessmen Brothers Annel Mussarat and Nabeel Mussarat with various bollywood stars

How raga Proved His Family's Non-Hindu Lineage

Over the last 5-6 years, the lineage of the nehru-gandhi family has been a matter of hot debate, esp. on social media. It has been debated ad nauseam how giyasuddin gazi became gangadhar nehru, how indira gandhi became maimuna begum prior to her marriage to phiroze jehangir khan, he of the muslim father-Parsi mother lineage (his mother's surname was ghandy), and how the union was blessed by no less than India's answer to Lord Voldemort, who turned fjk into feroze gandhi overnight, how indira (in)famously claimed to be the descendant of babur at the latter's grave (as mentioned by her Foreign Minister Natwar Singh on numerous occasions later), how nehru himself once claimed "By education I am an Englishman, by views an internationalist, by culture a Muslim, and I am a Hindu only by accident of birth", and so on. Of course, there have been numerous counter-arguments to this as well.

But be that as it may, this latest act by rahul gandhi, it can be said with some confidence, rather firmly puts the stamp of endorsement on the tainted family's non-Hindu lineage.

The Somnath Temple has two guestbooks, one for Hindu devotees arriving at the temple and the other for non-Hindu visitors. By signing the latter guestbook, the scion of India's answer to the Cosa Nostra has effectively admitted that even without his Roman Catholic mother's religious roots, his family is not, and has never been, a Hindu family. Unsurprisingly, it also provides a strong pointer towards the reasons of the family's longstanding and continued hatred for the HIndus of India.

https://in.news.yahoo.com/rahul-gandhi-name-shows-somnath-114842772.html 

Some Thoughts On The 96th Anniversary Of The Jallian Wala Bagh Massacre

Exactly 96 years ago, on 13th April 1919, British Brigadier General Reginald E.H. Dyer ordered his troops to fire at will on a peaceful gathering at Jallian Wala Bagh, Amritsar, Punjab, causing more than 1,500 casualties. Over 1,650 rounds were fired and men, women, and even children were brutally massacred, making the incident the most barbaric civilian massacre in modern history.

On April 13, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims gathered at the Jallian Wala Bagh, a public garden near the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar. An hour after the meeting began as per schedule at 4:30 pm, Dyer arrived with a group of 65 Gurkha and 25 Baluchi soldiers. 50 of them were armed with rifles. Dyer had also brought two armoured cars with machine guns. The vehicles were left outside as they were unable to enter the garden through the narrow entrance. The garden was surrounded on all sides by houses and buildings and had few a narrow entrances, most of them permanently locked. The main entrance was relatively wider but was guarded by the troops backed by the armoured vehicles.

Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits. He explained later about this act: "…was not to disperse the meeting but to punish the Indians for disobedience." Dyer ordered his troops to begin shooting towards the densest sections of the crowd (including women and children). Firing continued for about 10 minutes. Ceasefire was ordered only when ammunition supplies were almost exhausted, after 1,650 rounds were spent. The official (then) GoI sources estimated that the fatalities were 379, with 1,100 wounded. The number estimated by Indian National Congress was more than 1,500, with approximately 1,000 getting killed.

And what happened to Dyer? He was removed from duty and forced to retire. But when he returned to Britain, he was presented with £26,000 raised on his behalf by the Morning Post newspaper, a women’s organization presented him with the 'Sword of Punjab', and a large number of influential Britishers, including Rudyard Kipling, thought he had done the right thing. He became a celebrated hero in Britain among people with connections to the British Raj.

In Dyer's own words:

• It is only to an enlightened people that free speech and a free press can be extended. The Indian people want no such enlightenment.
• There should be an eleventh commandment in India: "Thou shalt not agitate."
• The time will come to India when a strong hand will be exerted against malice and 'perversion' of good order.
• Gandhi will not lead India to capable self-government. The British Raj must continue, firm and unshaken in its administration of justice to all men.

The massacre caused a re-evaluation of the Army's role in which the new policy became minimum force and the Army was retrained and developed suitable tactics such as crowd control. Historians consider the episode as a decisive step towards the end of British rule in India.

Is ratna pathak shah For Real?

Dear (not really) Ratna Pathak Shah,

I am not criticizing/appraising/analysing your comments "Satyajit Ray was barely tolerable" and "SHOLAY is extremely embarrassing". I am simply trashing them. So here goes:

1. Personal opinions are fine, as long as (a) the opinions are informed and intelligent and (b) we agree that our lack of appreciation of something might be a result of lack of understanding of the subject, or sheer stupidity, or simply an attention-grabbing technique. I may not like poetry, but if I say something like "Tagore just didn't know how to write poetry", that would indicate utter idiocy.
2. Both your husband—who, incidentally, shares your views on the topics you have remarked on—and you are fine actors. But comments like these only serve to establish the fact that being talented in a particular field and having a deep, intelligent, empathetic, and analytical understanding of that field are two different things altogether.
3. Evidently you have a profound Maya Sarabhai-esque "oh-I-am-so-intellectually-evolved" disdain for mainstream cinema. That is fine. A lot of us arty-farty types do. But while criticizing SHOLAY, the Citizen Kane of mainstream (Indian) cinema, you have very cleverly chosen to overlook the fact that the man who started off with Junoon, Sparsh, Aakrosh, Masoom, Trikaal, Mirch Masala, Ijaazat, Khamosh, and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro was rather quick to criticize the very kind of movies that won him fame and acclaim and moved on to award-winning, timeless classics like Daava, Lahoo Ke Do Rang, Takkar, Misaal, Zulm Ko Jala Doonga, Tehelkaa, Kasam, Lootere, Hasti, Dand-Nayak, Lakshmanrekha, Asambhav, Bombay Boys, Jackpot, Sona Spa...while your own bio-data now boasts of Khoobsurat. Even Sonam Kapoor doesn't want to talk about it! Selective judgementalism? And why, pray, was SHOLAY "embarrassing"? Did Ramesh Sippy make an indecent proposal to you while you were watching it??

Your comments are clearly nothing more than a lame attempt to generate the paying public's interest in Khoobsurat. Sorry, it's not working. You can outrage in Anurag Kashyap/Sanjay Leela Bhansali/Mahesh Bhatt/any venerable Bong director of today's style that your film is for the intelligent ones and not the hoi polloi, but guess what? People are still sticking to reruns of the extremely mediocre, unflattering, embarrassing SHOLAY and Ray films while giving Khoobsurat a miss by a mile.

In effect, therefore, your comments are evoking nothing but scornful mirth and ridicule for your intelligence. I actually feel sad for the scribe who interviewed you and hope someone brings this post to your notice.

No Country For Women, OR, A Nation Full Of Unbridled Misogynistic Libido

"Why? Why are we so shocked, so outraged over violence against women on the streets? Are we forgetting that this is India? Where a girl-foetus is not safe in her mother's womb; where a three-year-old baby is fair sexual game for her own father; where a godman as well as the Principal of a school can with impunity molest girls who have reposed their belief and trust in them; where educated husbands abuse their wives daily and equally educated friends justify that abuse? When wombs, schools, temples and even homes are not safe, why the shock about unsafe streets?"
— Sukanya Das [a much-loved and much-loving friend]

The malaise is not 'lack of awareness' or 'lack of education'. The malaise is INACTION.

Think, people, think. And then, for heaven's sake, ACT.

Or else, ere long, we will turn ourselves into A Nation Without Women.

And that will be the greatest injustice that a country can inflict upon itself.

Alas, India

"Let the House remember this. The Indian political parties and political classes do not represent the Indian masses. It is a delusion to believe that they do. I wish they did. They are not as representative of them as the movements in Britain represent the surges and impulses of the British nation. This has been proved in the war……The Congress Party declared non-co-operation with Great Britain and the Allies.……the Muslim League, sought to make a bargain about it, but no bargain was made.……Nevertheless, the only great volunteer army in the world that fought on either side in that struggle was formed in India. More than three and a half million men came forward to support the King-Emperor and the cause of Britain; they came forward not by conscription or compulsion, but out of their loyalty to Britain and to all that Britain stood for in their lives. In handing over the Government of India to these so-called political classes we are handing over to men of straw, of whom, in a few years, no trace will remain.

This Government, by their latest action, this 14 months limitation—which is what I am coming to— (will) cripple the new Viceroy and destroy the prospect of even going through the business on the agenda which has to be settled. This can only be explained as the complete adoption of one of Mr. Gandhi’s most scatterbrained observations, which I will read to the House. It was made on 24th May, 1942, after the Mission. He said: 'Leave India in God’s hands, in modem parlance, to anarchy; and that anarchy may lead to internecine warfare for a time, or to unrestricted dacoities. From these a true India will arise in place of the false one we see.' There, as far as I can see, is a statement indistinguishable from the policy His Majesty’s Government are determined to pursue."
— Sir Winston Churchill

Truer words were seldom spoken. The "men of straw" have infested this once-great land as might a demonic, inhuman entity possess a hapless soul and will not be exorcised.

A Prayer For My Nation

What this country has is literacy; what it needs is Education.

What this country has is freedom to do and say and think whatever we want to; what it needs is Guidance and Direction.

What this country has is politicians; what it needs is Leaders.

What this country has is anarchy in "unity in diversity"; what it needs is a Bond.

Your armchair patriotism that exists for one day will not change anything, nor will my perpetual sense of morbid cynicism. Because we both missed the point that the Freedom Struggle never ended. We failed to realize that on 15th August 1947, the Enemy merely shape-shifted and became an insider from an outsider. We failed to finish the battle. And we lost it.

And that is why, 66 years after we gained our "Independence", we remain as enslaved as we were. Maybe more.

What this country has is independence; what it needs is Maturity and Awakening as a society, as a people, as a nation.

I pray for that Awakening. I pray for that Maturity. I pray for Deliverance.

On Betrayal

How did we reach this corner of the world?

I mean, the world’s supposed to be round, right? How come it has so many corners, then? Some sunny corners, where friends meet and greet and talk and fight and make up and love and stand up for each other…

…and this dank, damp, dark, lonely, crowded-with-shadows corner, where the memories of yesterday sulk in silence, grimy tears of painful nothingness rolling up their cheeks to disappear within the hollows of the empty holes that once held shining bright eyes that lit up at the sight of each other?

How did we reach this corner of the world?

Or maybe it's not "we", but "I", thanks to your betrayal.

To The So-Called 'God' Of Cricket

Dear Mr. Sachin Tendulkar,

Retiring gracefully with your dignity and honour still intact is a million times better than f***ing your own legend for the sake of a few million bucks.

Sincerely,
Someone who considered you a 'god' from November 1989 to April 2011.

Helpless, Frustrated Rage

In 1983, Amitabh Bachchan had acted in a film titled INQUILAAB, which showed how an educated young man, unable to bear any longer the shackles of crime that were strangling him, his society, his country, takes up arms and mows down an entire room-full of corrupt politicians. As a school-going kid, I had been fascinated by the film and the strong anti-political message it sent out [though in typical cinematic fashion].

Over the last few months/years, this country of ours has been dogged, indeed, hounded by a legion of corrupt politicians/law-makers/law-keepers. The recent spate of rape crimes against women in general and kids in particular has deepened my conviction that the only way this country can be salvaged is by going the INQUILAAB way.

Take up arms. Don't appeal to the law to act. Take up arms against whoever does you wrong. An eye for an eye may very well render the whole world blind, but blind purging is a lot more preferable than seeing with helpless, fearful, cowering eyes. This country has gone to the gutters. Only a blood revolution can save it from utter destruction now.