we, the people

we, the people of india, having solemnly resolved

that 1044 dead, 223 missing, 2548 injured, 150000 displaced
is too little, too few;

that the toll of the orphaned and numbers raped
should follow the trail of the glorious sensex;

that commerce is more important than truth
or a prostituted police force;

that the god(s) need more human sacrifice
and the sweet smell of houses burning;

in our exercise of democratic right
this 24th day of november, 2007,

do hereby elect, congratulate and give to ourselves this government.



baruk feddabonn
Creative Commons License

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

all hail democracy!

we forget that even hitler was democratically elected.

feddabonn said...

democracy may not always be as hot as it is made out to be.

but then. what are the choices?

Gauri Gharpure said...

hey there, i beg to differ...:)
the recent election, rise to power back again of a much maligned govt (or shall we say: a leader) has seen some of the most biased, judgemental and gross generalisations- thnks to the media.

a country and its people cannot afford to mourn a massacre forever.

Gujarat, by far, has seen tremendous growth and i, as a gujarati and as someone who has been in ahmedabad all these years, can swaer by tht... for i ve seen the city, and the state getting enveloped in a breeze of good developments- not just for the elite, but for the common man- the demands of college going people were met and the bus routes were increased and reached every nook, connecting them to the university area, the roads were great, the bus stands were modernised, the buses were made CNG, and CNG rickshaws replaced the older kerosene gutting ones without much ado, the city ws visibly cleaner, and people were back to being the carefree lot, typical to a gujju sense of living..

as a people, gujaratis, may project very staunch religious sentiments, and it has seen a rise after the VHP brigands everywhere, but still, the gujarati muslim is too much a part of the soil to ever be cut off, we just cant afford to sideline him and I am sure everyone, including the govt which is back in power, realises tht.

Also, can the so called secularists give us a leader with as much vision and gumption for development as modi? The congress even failed to name who would be the CM if they came to power..If you still think yes,and can supplement a name, go ahead and bring someone in his place, we will gladly get him to power.

but the sad fact remains, tht even with his skewed political ideologies, he has done all in his power to ensure tht we progress, as a whole, as a state...

If u had seen Sagarika Ghosh's interview at 10 PM on CNN-IBN, and noticed the tone of her questioning, u might ve just relaised how biased the media has been, and perhaps will be, in projecting modi's image. I saw the repeated telecasts of his 'uncivilised behaviour' on shown n number of times, with the instigating VO.. the fact is, there ws plain, straightforward, sensible gujarati in his speech..Also, had u listened to Swapan Mukherjee's objective, logical analysis to counter Sagarika's heated banter accentuated with facial expressions, eyebrow raising and smirks each time she uttered 'modi' or 'bjp' or 'back to power'?

Even I, as a person, is afraid of the fanatic bent of RSS and VHP.. But the fact remains, politics is too complicated a thing to chalk out in black and white- and tht exactly is exactly wht the media attempted to do in the post-godhra analysis...

How do u explain the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the response of Rajiv Gandhi 'When a big tree falls, there are shudders?' simply put, and it may sound cold, we need to move ahead.

The problem today, is tht people ve become too damn judgemental. if the people of gujarat rejoice tht a good govt is back in power, they are labelled anti-muslims. wht the heck??? cud people please stop the gross generalisations and open their eyes to the real gujarat- where girls can drive back alone on a 2-wheeler at 2 AM after a garba night, where there r entire muslim communities who sing the garba and the music, and where safety is still taken granted for. We shall ensure tht godhra doesnt happen again, we lament wht happened and we insist we r a far more progressive and happy state than any other till date. dont fill in ideas in the minds of our muslim brothers like the media is bent on doin to alienate them... we are a happy people even with all our differences..

PnB said...

there are two things i fear the most in india: hijras and the fucking police. both of them can beat the crap outta you and get away with it.

i usually shy away from reading mizo blogs, as we tend to shy away from addressing issues larger than our individual lives and close minded state. it feels fresh to read a blog that goes beyond the usual crap.

we'll keep reading your blog again.

Anonymous said...

@gauri

agreed. but tell me... can all this justify the killing of even one innocent human being?

feddabonn said...

@gauri: thanks for that detailed and passionate comment. like you have said, i beg to disagree. :)

1) how long can the country and its people mourn a massacre? how long do we mourn our dead parents? children? spouses? who decides when we move on?

2) hitler was good for germany. he restored german economy, military might, and, most importantly, german self respect. remember, he was elected.

george bush is doing what is good for his country by waging war. historically, the US economy (and hence people's comfort and prosperity) is at its best when there is war. remember, he was elected. and then elected AGAIN.

question is, at what cost?

3) all talk of brotherhood is fine. that does not change the fact that there are 1044 dead (hindu AND muslim), 223 missing (hindu AND muslim), 2548 injured (hindu AND muslim) and 150000 displaced (hindu AND muslim). the numbers i have taken are govt. numbers, NOT from the 'media', not even from independent human rights watchers, whose numbers are much higher.

4) my grouse, honestly, is not even against a govt that allowed this to happen, that by many accounts seems to have encouraged it to happen. my grouse is against us, we the people, who have let this happen, and have encouraged the govt that fueled it.

5) i do not watch TV at all, and cannot comment on the behaviour of interviewers. what you describe, however, is VERY likely from what little i used to watch a few years back. thanks for solidifying my decision NOT to get a TV!

gauri, i do not intend to be judgemental. i am glad that people are still happy and carefree. i am not pro-any religion or anti-any religion; i treat all religions equally-with disdain. if people choose to believe, i respect that choice. but i do NOT respect a govt that encourages hatred, or people who use their religion to practice it.

this was, if i am not mistaken, the 3rd set of community based riots in gujarat. i hope to god it will be the last.

feddabonn said...

@ p&b: thanks for reading, liking AND telling me so!

move to h'bad-the police are quite non-violent. even when they SHOULD be violent! now that i think of it, our hijras are rather pleasant too. at least i haven't been hit by one. yet.

@idle: innocent? who is innocent? in case you are thinking of children, i even know a few EVIL three year olds...

Gauri Gharpure said...

@ featherbone...

as usual, the words flow in a pattern of logic and do not once waver from tht sensible line of thought, so i like, respect and agree with the points u have made.

however, it may sound cold, but i again re-iterate: a massacre cannot be mourned for ever. It can be remembered, it can serve as a learning experience, it can leave bitter memories, but it cannot be considered a yardstick to measure anything else tht follows. The media has just tried to do tht after 2002. riots became a yadstick to comment on anything that happened in our state after 2002. as a gujarati, I feel extremely sad, indignant, perhaps also insulted by this attitude.

let us acknowlegde that communal riots were not invented in history for the first time in the modi regime. long before we got our independence, there ws tension, there were breakouts and there were gory deaths. The partition saw thousands of murders on boths sides of the border and Noakhali happened in the peaceloving Mahatma's presence. They were massacres just preceding and succeeding the midnight's welcome of freedom, but we moved on with Saare Jahan Se Accha Hindustan Hamara, all the same...Don't forget the gory past, but move on...

the media has somehow managed to synomise 'forget and forgive' with 'moving on' and any damn good thing that happens in my state is clouted with '2002'...

I also do not respect a government, my present government in Gujarat for the hardline attitude it projects. I condemn the hindutva shouts of the VHP brigand with all my might too. But at the same time, I have come to realise that politics does not run on respect, passion, anger or love. It is pure calculation and in the end, what u 'deliver'.

As I said in the previous reply, we as a people need a powerful leader, who has the gumption to deliver. Modi, at present, represents a visionary who has thought at least 20 years ahead from today and given us 'development' . I put that in quotes for very soon (or has it already started) the media is going to malign the word 'development' too..

We hope that in this term, owing to the pressure created by concerned people like you, and the hyper media, we will see a balanced approach and most definitely, Gujarat or Modi for that matter cannot allow another Godhra. We were thrown back by almost 20 years of progress in those 2 months, and almost back to the middleages given the barbaric riotins. It took a lot of effort to get us back on track, and we are too astute a people to go back on a downfall like Godhra again..

feddabonn said...

gauri,

i like the fact that you talk of forgiving, not of forgetting. while i believe in forgivness, i do not believe in forgetting-that will only ensure that history will repeat. i understand your anger at your state/culture/language being measured constantly against the riots. i am sorry.

communal riots were invented by people. by we, the people. by you and me. and the governments we get are the ones we deserve.

as long as we look to authourity systems to tell us what we should do-whether those authourity systems are governments or religions or corporations or the 'media'-we will falter. we will live in fear. and out of fear comes anger and killing my neighbour.

i hope gujrat can heal, that india can heal. though honestly, i doubt it.

Anonymous said...

@gauri

if someone kills a member of my family, i want him punished. and i expect the law of the land to help me with that.

simply put, if you commit a crime, you pay.

that is the only fear that keeps most of us, i and baruk for included, from breaking loose.

now, did narendra modi break the law? yes.

has he been responsible for the deaths of thousands? yes.

so he must pay. it is simple.

feddabonn said...

@ fictitious:

i could be a lot closer to breaking loose than when we last spoke...grin.

i don't know if guilt is so easily decided. if modi should be punished, what about the people who voted AND re-voted him into power-thereby showing their support for the killing he commissoned? are foot soldiers any less guilty than the leadership?

do we, by our purchasing/lifestyle choices, not have a hand in the farmer suicides? i'm listening to crackers burst as i type this-shouldn't we all be flogged and beaten and imprisoned for the way we are encouraging child labour in sivakasi? doesn't the labourer who digs the road at a miserable wage so that i may get broadband deserve to wish me dead?