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Sunday, December 28, 2008

Mr Editor, Why are you so blood thirsty?

Israel strikes as India dithers is the provocative headline in one of our so called National Newspaper, The New Indian Express [NIE] today.
205 killed,300 injured is the proud proclamation below the headline.
The report is about the massacre of Palestinians living in Gaza by Israeli bombings. Contrast the NIE headline with that of London Times or Washington Post from countries who are staunch allies of Israel. No other newspaper in the World it seems is as blood thirsty as NIE.

NIE wants India to do an Israel.That is to bomb Pakistan. Or the Editor may want us to bomb Bangladesh and Afghanistan as well. He may be pleased if we bomb Iran also.
Now is there any rational in this malicious comparison between the situation in the Middle East with that of Indian subcontinent?
Israel-Palestine issue is the fight for the same piece of land in the Middle East between the Jews and Palestinians. It has no similarities to the issues in Indian Subcontinent.

A hallmark of the Israel-Palestine conflict has been the level of violence witnessed for virtually its entire duration. Fighting has been conducted by regular armies, paramilitary groups, and terror cells. Casualties have not been restricted to the military, with a large loss of civilian life on both sides. Even after so many years and deaths of millions no solution is in sight.

Is the NIE so blood thirsty as to make Indian subcontinent another Middle-East?

What will happen if India bombs Pakistan?
What is the purpose of bombing Pakistan?
Has pre emptive strikes reduced the threat of terror anywhere in the World?
Such attacks will only play in to the hands of extremists.Such an attack will destabilise the Civilian Government in Pakistan and Army and Islamists will take over.
Have the editor of the NIE thought about the events that will follow dragging India to a never ending conflict with a Islamist Military Government?
Since Mumbai terror attacks the NIE is baying for blood in its war-mongering pseudo patriotic fervour. I hope the readers of NIE will realise it and reject such ideology.

6 comments:

  1. Brilliantly put.
    And I also find many blogs baying for blood the same way. They seem to think war is some kind of a proof of our strength.
    NIE is being extremely irresponsible.
    Sending this link to some other bloggers who I think should read this.

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  2. Thank you IHM. Felt like burning the Newspaper seeing that headline

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  3. True violence doesn't achieve anything. And, advocating that too is bad... Hopefully ALL the perpetrators of violence realise that shedding blood is fruitless. Our world can be peaceful only if EVERYONE respects other's points of view, leaders have statesmanship and problems are politically solved. Sadly, in today's world we have people who have taken up violence as a modern-day profession. It's hard to see light at the end of the tunnel. Probably we are all destined to live this phase of evolution, when reason doesn't work.

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  4. Thank you for the comment.Violence and lack of reason are not new phenomenons. But the destructive power of weapons have considerably increased as shown by AK 47s of Islamist terrorists and F16 Bombers of Israel.

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  5. The Indian Media has started becoming more and more irresponsible. In a civilized democratic free country like ours , media is a two edged sword. This kind of frenzy is even more evident in the visual media where we are getting to see 'manufacturing consent'for the war. Sane voices are being drowned and different channels are crying themselves hoarse.
    What the US and Israel are doing are despicable acts far worse if not of the same calibre as the Holocaust, the world still shudders at.
    India is a peace loving nation and it must remain so. But peace loving should not be just a passive affair. It doesnt mean meekness. Peace loving countries should raise their voices LOUD and CLEAR even when peace is threatened elsewhere.
    Here I would like to quote a famous poem by
    "Pastor Martin Niemöller about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.

    When the Nazis came for the communists,
    I remained silent;
    I was not a communist.
    When they locked up the social democrats,
    I remained silent;
    I was not a social democrat.

    When they came for the trade unionists,
    I did not speak out;
    I was not a trade unionist.

    When they came for the Jews,
    I remained silent;
    I was not a Jew.

    When they came for me,
    there was no one left to speak out."
    ( Courtesy Wikipedia)

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  6. Thank you Finch for the comment.Funny thing is that the New Indian Express in an editorial 2 days ago called for an immediate halt to Gaza attack and urged India to be more proactive.I think I should post about their double standards

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Comments are welcome especially if you do not think like me. But anonymous comments behind masks and those not relevant to the post are not encouraged.