Skip to main content

Paresh Rawal Blunders




American President Donald Trump was in Saudi Arabia the other day.  The man who came to power riding the anti-Muslim wave, the man who told the world that Muslims were the enemies of civilisation, now praises the great contributions of Islam to the world.  He mentioned the “ancient wonders” as well as the Saudi Arabia’s modern “soaring achievements in architecture.” He listed such “wonders” as Giza, Luxor and Alexandria to applaud the Islamic achievements.  He sought the cooperation of Saudi Arabia to bring peace and harmony into the world.

Whether Trump underwent some spiritual transformation is yet to be seen.  We know that he is a devout Christian who attends prayer services regularly and religiously.  But prayer services and rituals really don’t make people any better.  If they did, the world would have been a paradise long ago. 

Whatever that is, Trump has apparently changed his approach from one based on hatred to one based on cooperation.  This new approach might work.  I hope it does.  At least it gives hope a chance while hatred can achieve no good.

Courtesy: clipartfest.com
This is one lesson that India’s Right wing is yet to learn.  The latest example is Paresh Rawal’s suggestion to the Indian Army to use Arundhati Roy as a human shield in Kashmir. Leaving aside the insult it implicitly sticks to the Army, the suggestion smacks of the pettiness that accompanies the entire outlook of India’s Right wing.  

Arundhati Roy stands far, far above petty nationalism.  She has described herself as a “global citizen.” That’s what we all should be: citizens of the world who respect every human being irrespective of race and religion.  Ms Roy’s views on Kashmir spring from that broad, global outlook.  Narrow-minded bigots like Rawal cannot be expected to understand such benignity. 

Donald Trump was lauded as a great hero by India’s Right wing because he spoke the same language of hatred which the latter has not only mastered but also is wielding effectively in most parts of the country.  But Trump seems to have learnt better lessons.  Are people like Rawal ready to learn?  If they are, India might still have a chance to stay united as one nation.

“It is a choice between two futures,” as Trump proclaimed in Saudi Arabia.  “If we really want to address that crisis (in Kashmir),” Ms Roy wrote a year ago in Outlook, “if we really want to stop the endless cycle of killing and dying, if we really want to stem the haemorrhaging, the first step has to be a small concession to honesty.  We have to have an honest conversation.”

Yes, it is basic honesty that the Right wing in India should acquire first.  And then the willingness to shed hatred – if they are incapable of learning love, at least that: shed the hatred.

Comments

  1. Pranju chakrapaniMay 23, 2017 at 1:03 PM

    I was planning to write about a similar topic on one Major Leetul Gogoi, from Assam, who has been applauded by the Indian Army of using a stone pelter as a shield.

    Yes, Arumdhati Roy's God of small things left me in transient state of hangover for days, such is the power of her words and intellect.

    What I don't understand is, why can't she be flexible and find reasons to the correctness of both the sides instead of adhering to one. Communists are not always right, stone pelters are not always right, anarchism is not always right.

    Or perhaps I am highly biased due to the media.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 23, 2017 at 7:54 PM

      Every person who is passionate about something is biased naturally, I guess. Isn't the entire right wing in India today totally biased against the minorities? Their whole thinking is rooted in hatred. Compared to that Ms Roy's bias (yes, we call it bias insofar as her views are rooted in an ideology) is almost sacred. When she says that Kashmir belongs to the people of Kashmir and they have the right to decide their destiny, is it really a bias? When she says that whenever some entrepreneur wants some forest land, thousands of tribal people are displaced in the name of bringing them to the mainstream, is she biased? When she says that big dams don't serve the purpose is she biased?

      Yes, stone pelting is not right. Yes, terrorism is terrible. Yes, communism is outdated. But Ms Roy is at least honest. She is humane. As Sanjay Bhat IPS said I would love to sit with her tied to the jeep as a human shield.

      Delete
    2. Pranju chakrapaniMay 23, 2017 at 8:24 PM

      Your arguments are powerful except for the part of letting the people of Kashmir decide the fate of their state.
      I am not well read on the deeper issues dated from the era of independence of India to understand the rebel of the Kashmiri youths but if they are let to decide the faith of their "own" land, then arunachali would also have to be let to decide their fate, then the Bodo people of Assam have to be let to decide their fate, then the indigenous population of Assam have to be let to decide our own fate.

      How can we decide our own fate? Won't it lead to economic instability? Won't it lead to disruption of one nation? Won't it lead to a time travel to the pre industrialisation?
      When the brightest minds should come forward to solve hunger issues, poverty, happiness index, right to dignity, is it wise to create disruption?

      Delete
    3. Tomichan MatheikalMay 23, 2017 at 8:42 PM

      I'm not endorsing disruption or balkanisation of any sort. See why the small states of Northeast were carved out of erstwhile Assam. It is because the indigenous people of those areas were denied their rights. New states had to be formed. That is the solution.

      Now in the case of Kashmir, even as Ms Roy has said many times, the situation has gone out of the control of the govt of India. Moreover, there are many other factors such as the provision for a referendum, the anti-Muslim sentiments of the majoritarian govt, the rise of fundamentalism, and so on. How do we deal with them?

      Look at the rise of Bhim Sena. Their leader, Chandrashekhar, has vowed that the Brahmins (Aryans) will be driven out if it comes to more persecution of Dalits. Who is creating the problem?

      We need to look at the problems with the intention of solving them not with the intention of asserting our power.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In this Wonderland

I didn’t write anything in the last few days. Nor did I feel any urge to write. I don’t know if this lack of interest to write is what’s called writer’s block. Or is it simple disenchantment with whatever is happening around me? We’re living in a time that offers much, too much, to writers. The whole world looks like a complex plot for a gigantic epic. The line between truth and fiction has disappeared. Mass murders have become no-news. Animals get more compassion than fellow human beings. Even their excreta are venerated! Folk tales are presented as scientific truths while scientific truths are sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. When the young generation in Nepal set fire to their Parliament and Supreme Court buildings, they were making an unmistakable statement: that they are sick of their political leaders and their systems. Is there any country whose leaders don’t sicken their citizens? I’m just wondering. Maybe, there are good leaders still left in a few coun...
12 comments
Read more

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

Death as a Sculptor

Book Discussion An Introductory Note : This is not a book review but a reflection on one of the many themes in The Infatuations , novel by Javier Marias. If you have any intention of reading the novel, please be forewarned that this post contains spoilers. For my review of the book, without spoilers, read an earlier post: The Infatuations (2013). D eath can reshape the reality for the survivors of the departed. For example, a man’s death can entirely alter the lives of his surviving family members: his wife and children, particularly. That sounds like a cliché. Javier Marias’ novel, The Infatuations , shows us that death can alter a lot more; it can reshape meanings, relationships, and even morality of the people affected by the death. Miguel Deverne is killed by an abnormal man right in the beginning of the novel. It seems like an accidental killing. But it isn’t. There are more people than the apparently insane killer involved in the crime and there are motives which are di...
7 comments
Read more

When Cricket Becomes War

Illustration by Copilot Designer Why did India agree to play Pakistan at all if the animosity runs so deep that Indian players could not even extend the customary handshake: a simple ritual that embodies the very essence of sportsmanship? Cricket is not war, in the first place. When a nation turns a game into a war, it does not defeat its rival; it only wages war on its own culture, poisoning its acclaimed greatness. India which claims to be Viswaguru , the world’s Guru, is degenerating itself day after day with mounting hatred against everyone who is not Hindu. How can we forget what India did to a young cricket player named Mohammed Siraj , especially in this context? In the recent test series against England, India achieved an unexpected draw because of Siraj. 1113 balls and 23 wickets. He was instrumental in India’s series-levelling victory in the final Test at the Oval and was declared the Player of the Match. But India did not celebrate him. Instead, it mocked him for his o...
6 comments
Read more

Whose Rama?

Book Review Title: Whose Rama? [Malayalam] Author: T S Syamkumar Publisher: D C Books, Kerala Pages: 352 Rama may be an incarnation of God Vishnu, but is he as noble a man [ Maryada Purushottam ] as he is projected to be by certain sections of Hindus? This is the theme of Dr Syamkumar’s book, written in Malayalam. There is no English translation available yet. Rama is a creation of the Brahmins, asserts the author of this book. The Ramayana upholds the unjust caste system created by Brahmins for their own wellbeing. Everyone else exists for the sake of the Brahmin wellbeing. If the Kshatriyas are given the role of rulers, it is only because the Brahmins need such men to fight and die for them. Valmiki’s Rama too upheld that unjust system merely because that was his Kshatriya-dharma, allotted by the Brahmins. One of the many evils that Valmiki’s Rama perpetrates heartlessly is the killing of Shambuka, a boy who belonged to a low caste but chose to become an ascetic. The...
8 comments
Read more