21st Century Fox

As usual this one more columnist has indulged in throwing mud onthe non-congress opposition. As if, Sonia and her team UPA has done any thing good for the Country or the democracy ! The Congress and its allies have one rock solid leadership and BJP of course, is faction ridden as its predecessor the undevided Janatha Party. But could you find fault with these parties about their unstinted efforts in bringing democracy back on rails whenever the ruling Congress derails it ? . Would any body point fingers at Morajibhai, Vajapeyee and the likes including Chandra Shekhar, V.P Singh, Ramakrishna Hegde for any anti people acts ? Would you ever find the non congress parties like Communists, JDU, BJD, TC and BJP grossly punishing people of this country by making their life a hell as the UPA is now doing. Every day a scandal is out in UPA rule, the skeletons falling out from the mis – rule of Ms Gandhi’s cupboards ? One Yeddyurappa would not be match to Rajas, Sukhrams, Kalmadis, MCs, Kannimolis, Telgis . Whom are our columnists fooling ? Please do not boast yourself for your partisan writings !

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For once she hasn’t spoken about some random Sharad Pawar experience of hers like in the past n number of articles.

Sujata, If you read this (and I hope you do !)
As a journalist you are “expected” to be unbiased – which I know is very difficult; but the least you can do is to not keep trashing one party only ! The “hate” towards the Shiv Sena (which I understand as a Mumbaikar), and towards the BJP (which is always over the top) from you is always very distinct in your blog posts.

Also, your insistence of intentionally using “Bombay” in place of Mumbai just shows your lack of respect for maharashtrians’ of the city. (Yes, I know Mumbai is a cosmopolitan city, as Kripashankar Singh and Narendra Kumar of the Congress and NCP will tell you), but you simply seem to be stubborn about your views.

I am as supportive of Indians coming from all parts of the country to look for jobs in Mumbai / Maharashtra; but no matter what – You got to respect the local feelings & local culture.

You are a good writer, but unfortunately you use this medium to only profess your views & thoughts of one party against the other (And never to my knowledge have you truly spoken against the Congress). In that case, how does that make you different from Balasaheb Thakrey or the Saamna ??

Maharashtra has been systemically ruined by the Deshmukhs, Rane’s, Shindes, Thakreys, and Chavans (barring the good man Prithviraj Chavan). I know for a fact you will agree with me on this.

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So, now Omar Abdullah should be setting National Party – BJP strategy?
Sheikh Abdullah–>Farooq–>And now Omar. What has he done to deserve CM of J&K?
“Normal” parties around world always have dissent- if there are no detractors, then what is the need for “party”?
Yes, Congress has a dynastic “leader” and if you mean “discipline” equals silencing opposing point of view, then you are disgracing Indian Democracy.

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Oooh!! Ditto!! Ditto!! Only, I realized that if I buy books at the rate I read, I will be out on the streets, homeless and hungry.. So I do the unethical thing, I download the books.. I’m not happy about it, and I do buy the physical copies of the books that I really like, that is just the way it is.. Online book buying is such a relief!! I can get books that not released in India from Flipkart (most of the fantasy fiction I read is not released in India) very easily.. Retail stores these days have gone to the dogs, all I see are Sidney Sheldons, Robin Cooks and Jeffery Archers or the now proliferating third rate Indian fiction, not that there is anything wrong with these books, but I’d like a little variety myself..

Also, try Goodreads.com, you can rate the books you’ve read and they provide a list of recommendations, which are really good..

P.S.- Totally agree about the too bleeping slow progress of writers. I’m a fan of George RR Martin and I find myself waiting 5-6 years between books.. Totally not fair..

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Hahahha, you are funny, Buuny

PS: You have taken to technology like a fish takes to water (hint hint: Fb alerts (;)

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After buying a couple of unreadable books from bookshops in a hurry, just based on blurb and cover without reading some pages, I wish we could randomly open a page of the book and read when buying online. On the other hand I did not have the reviews at my finger tips.

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Next step in your technological evolution: you’ll begin to read most of your books on a device. Probably.

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J. Jayalalitha’s demand that Kamal Haasan should sit down with Islamic groups and re-edit his movie, falls into this category. But there are precedents.
—- it was kamal who set this precedent. he had special show for muslim parties but after seeing the movie they went to state govt to ban the movie, not delete some part. so she said to work out a compromise, she didn’t demand.
(see how media has its own sickening agenda. )
didn’t m.f.hussain do that with his movie gajakamini,
(but psudo secluar media is silent about this, but hindu protest is highlighted.)

protect free expression. — also my life/work from being disrupted by these parties. for a youtube movie , usa embassy was attacked. so govt should hv 1 police for each citizen.

– media should remove its pseudo secular blinkers & report news not their views on news.

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politicians to get away with offering this justification.

—- so , what do you want, a riot to erupt & then police to control it. so, say openly that congress & other pseudo secular parties to avoid this minority appeasement boldly if you can.
media wanted to create another modi in jayalalitha !!!!!! to sell & make money. see how many are still in this profession by writing about modi all these years.

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American civil liberties union

— these are brave enough to call spade a spade, but our indian version is a completely screwed one, with minority appeasement. joined by media, english speaking so called liberal class.
why is liberal class silent with mamta banning salman rushdie & tasleema. you can be sure the american version of liberal would hv raised this issue. even you made a passing remark, and side stepped it. if modi hv done it, we would hv been bombarded, starting with latest news from IBN., reams of news papers from The Hindu, & TOI.

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kamalahasan is liberal like pseduo secular politician. proclaim to understand muslim & islam, by attending few iftar prties & eating biriyani during ramzan.

he says his movie does not offend muslims, but muslims say they are offended as koranic verses misused. so much for his knowledge about islam, shows his movie to them & they want to ban it, not delete some scene.

i would like to get a reply from seculars like vir , if this happend
- goverment arrest rioters – few theaters burnt , people lost life, work, property

will liberals will shout innocent muslims targeted (or) justify their action because koran was insulted (or) kamal should not have insulted koran (or) blame govt for no/late action (or) blame intelligent department. (but if police do preventive arrest then you shout innocent muslim arrested & fight for their human right)

its liberals who are confused, but majority is clear about all these,

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don’t blame judges, even they are living in this society,culture, environment, until these and people change, nothing will change. like typical indian, shift blame to judges.
religion is 1 big hurdle, until its crossed we cannot go anywhere. but then we are secular, and some religions hv more rights then others.

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INDIA’S TRYST WITH MOBOCRACY
Even as our nation as a republic was basking in its self-glory for the sixty forth time in the national capital, its essence of nationhood was withering away elsewhere, in Amma’s own land. The irony and the contrast between the two could not have been starker. One celebrated the glory of the constitution and its practice through the state, the other denigrated the
constitution and mocked both, its practitioners and the state. Kamal’s multi crore magnum opus ‘Vishwaroopam’ was stopped right in its tracks before it could roll out on the screens for the public, because some chosen few lumpens felt the film violated their faith and the book. They threatened
backlash unless Kamal concedes and surrenders to their fatwas. The players
involved this time might be new, but the theme of the on going narrative is
frighteningly similar as they unravel in sequel to each other. From MF Hussain’s forced exile to Rushdie’s entry bans, from the outcry to ban ‘ fire’ to ‘Vishvaroopam’ the message is common, loud and clear- Intolerance. Ideas expressed through any form of art needs to pass the approval of the lowest denominator and arbiter of sensibility. Welcome to the new emerging India of the 21st century. The mobs have finally arrived. Not democracy, it is going to be the rule of mobocracy, here on.

The near absence of rule of law and the capitulation of the state to the moronic demands of fringe lunatics, rabble rousers and wild lumpens on the street has only further emboldened the latter to institutionalise their politics of coercion. Judiciary, the last bastion of hope for the citizen to seek redressal and justice also has now given in, exposing its impotence for rational interference to protect the victims of such mob rage. In case after case of such mob attacks on the works of arts literature or ideas, the pattern is similar, familiar and now predictable, thanks to the re assurance that the
state and the courts have provided to such mobs. Art and artists by their very
nature are most often the unwitting victims of these faceless, mindless brutes. It is because artists like Kamal offers some ‘idea’ through their works of creation after investing invaluable creative thoughts, efforts and money . The fringe mobs who denigrate such works have nothing to offer,nothing at stake,
except threats and destructions, demands and coercion for being sentimentally hurt by that ‘idea’. Thus, some rationally disconnected fragile sentiments claims its primacy and control over an ‘Idea’ borne out of intellect and creative thought process. Not some medieval age happenings, these are the modern day, contemporary India’s day to day events, actively aided and abetted by a defunct state as well as an unthinking judiciary.

Forget the lumpens who objected to certain scenes of Vishvaroopam, observe the grotesque arguments forwarded by the court in its stay order and the stand by the state government in defence of the ban. They favour ban to avoid an alleged, imaginary law and order threatened by the goons
in case the movie runs in its current form. The fact that the film has gone through and passed the test of scrutiny by a statutory body like censor board were inconsequential to both of them. What however mattered to both was “hurt sentiments” of some fringe elements with dubious credentials, and their threat to resort to violence in case they are defied. By invoking ban by the state and then later upholding it through the court, both have de facto failed to uphold the rule of law, exact opposite of what they are actually claiming. It is no coincidence that they overlooked this obvious fallacy of their stands, that it is goons who broke or threatened to break the law and not the artist Kamal. The ban only helped in legitimising the threats and claims of the lumpens while criminalising the litigant, the artist. If anyone who needed protection, it was Kamal for his work where he had invested crores rather than the depraved lumpens who wear their misplaced sentiments as potent weapon. The stand that the state government and the court took betrays the dominance of a much ,sinister and monstrous mindsets that guide our society, our government and now even the judiciary. Mindsets of the medieval brutes that sanctions the legitimacy of rule by mobocracy, where virtue is preset in the irrational claims of any mob,as long as they can carry out their threats of death and destruction. In short, a mindset that finally obliterates the very idea of ‘individual rights”.
At a superficial level, the dynamics of such coercions, threats and bans sought by some fringe mobs with a simultaneous complicity by the state and the judiciary appears to be temporary aberrations and so inconsequential. But at a deeper level,the malaise is unmistakably a manifestation of our philosophical decay that has infested the foundation of our political, cultural and social outlooks. This is the philosophy of collectivism, that place the rights of a group, a commune, a mob or a gang over that of an Individual. Observe that in our “idea of justice” we confer the value of ultimate virtue in any act that is purportedly in the ‘interest” of any group or commune rather than that of an individual. There is, curiously no place for an individual identity in our society or political philosophy. We tend to draw our fundamental identity by virtue of being part of a location, community, religion, caste, organisation group, gang or mob. But never as an individual. Individual identity is secondary and insignificant for public or social existence. As a consequence, we seek our rights through such collective identity and very rarely as the individual.

Thus we have various interests groups that bargain collectively from the state and the society for special considerations, privileges, favours or rights. Concepts such as Dalit rights, minority rights, tribal rights, handicapped rights, workers rights or any “special group “rights, etc are the direct fallout of this collective identity dynamics. It is now deeply embedded in our socio-cultural DNA. So much so, that even our judiciary views the delivery of judgements through this collective identity prism. It is quite evident from the stand that courts take whenever there is conflict between the individual rights
and the so called collective rights. The ban on “Vishwaroopam” is a classic
case that confirms this bias. The court decreed that it does not bother about
the individual (Kamal’s)business interests or its loss if it feels that the
interest of a larger group is getting hurt(in this case getting “sentimentally
hurt” ) even though of imaginary nature. To pad up the justification of its
contrived logic, it brings in the bogey of ‘alleged violence” and threat to law
and order. Thus the court and the state government conveniently pass the onus of the above threat of violence and break of law and order on Kamal, rather than the Lumpen mob who actually gave such threats. This, is the final murder of what truth, justice and individual rights represents in any rational
society. Jayalalitha or Mamta, Madras HC or Kolkata HC,they have unequivocally confirmed their refusal to identify the citizen as an Individual. Case after case across the country reaffirms the pattern of underlying thought process that guide the final frontiers of the nation. It is the collective , the mob that is counted, not the individual or his independent idea.

The language of public discourse in all the spheres is in line with the above. When the revered Amma asks Kamal why his film should not be banned as she received applications from 24 Muslim organisations to that effect, what she effectively conveyed was the forgone conclusion that was already in the domain of the polity and the judiciary. Simply put, Kamal had only two options-to face ban or to capitulate to the lumpen mobs demand. The
comprise formula had only one connotation to Kamal-to surrender unconditionally. Because it has not only the approval of the overall moral disposition of the society, the state and even the judiciary also approves in tandem. Kamal the artist, like many others in different parts of the country and in different context has no choice but surrender to the whims of the lumpens. India as a contrived discard of irrationality wins everytime, even though an Indian looses every time, bit by bit. The lumpens rejoice, the state celebrates its omnipotence and perhaps the Judiciary basks in its sense of jurisprudence.

The triumph of unreason, irrationality, collectivism and mobocracy should not surprise us now. It was always in the offing, given the dominant mindsets or philosophy that defined our priorities as citizens. The age of intolerance that we witness today and cry about with incomprehension is the eventual consequence of what we had intellectually approved all this while. Kamal’s Vishwaroopam, in many ways represents the incongruity of the wild,violent bigotry that needs to be banished from the domain of humanity, but eventually ends up at its very victim.

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once you really give freedom of speech to the people, the corrupt political establishment itself is threatened.

— ther are 100 of movies which depict politician, police, doctors, lawyers in very very bad light. there were many sting operations on them. modi is hounded day & night. so politician is not protected. but our english media is blinded by pseudo secularism of politician & join hands. people hv freedon of speech, i can write many things about politician & draw cartoons, but nothing about religion.

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