Kandhar - Place Value, Perception & Truth An Analysis

Let's analyze How perception matters more than place value and how it can be molded ?

We were taking tea in the cold evening of 24th December 1999 when news flashed that IC 814 has been hijacked from Kathmandu Airport. This Airbus  A300 plane was full with 176 Indian passengers which ended up standing on the Kandahar Airport. Hijackers demanded more than 50 terrorists in jail to be released,asked for a big sum of money and safe passage.

We can see the geographical position of Afghanistan on the world map.Till then, Afghanistan was ruled by Taliban militia who felt proud to give shelter to the Islamic terrorists. NDA Government called an emergency meeting and all party meeting was also called. In that meet, Every party had the opinion that passenger's safety should be foremost agenda.

Hundreds of family members had come on road to pressurize the government ( In democracy Peoples' pressure does matter,In MMS democracy, Sonia's pressure does matter).

Now what were our options?

1. To send NSG commandos to rescue the plane.

2. To attack Afghanistan to teach a lesson to Taliban.

3. Not to release the terrorists and let the passengers die.(hypothetical)

4. to send some clerks along with the terrorists to Kandahar.

5. To negotiate with Taliban and hijackers.

6. To ask for help to other nations

7. Hope for some James bond character sitting in the plane.

Now, if we analyse them one by one.

Afghanistan is not a border state to India, to fly a military Aeroplane in the air space of Afghanistan,you need permission from Pakistan.We can simply say,that Pakistan could be attacked if it didn't allow the plane to use it's air space. Pakistan is a sovereign nation and it has right to shoot down any plane that is flying in it's air space without permission. If we would try this adventure, we would end up fighting a war with Pakistan.

We should see the situation at that time when 9/11 hadn't happened. We would not get support from any other nation for war against terror and would end up creating a perception that we are aggressors in spite of the place value of being attacked by Pakistani terrorists. In such situation,sending an aeroplane full of NSG guards was not possible.

To attack Afghanistan, we would need the airspace. Please note that USA which has quite an impressive arsenal,which can use it's aircraft carriers as military base to attack any nation in the world,if need be. USA has to also request for the airspace of Pakistan and it was called as an ally in war against terrorism.And,if we could do that,would it be justified to send thousands of soldiers in terrain about which they didn't know anything. After such a great fire power of US air force, they had to face a crisis of heavy causalities. It could be worse if thousands of dead bodies of Indian soldiers would come in the coffin.

India is a welfare state where person is important that country.That means that we don't justify death of people for the sake of the Nation.Government could not abandon them so easily and be tagged as insensitive and anti people. The same media which blames BJP for release of terrorists was putting pressure and creating peoples' perception to such level that some of the alliance partners would pull support to be protected from this perception.

Government would be sacrificed on this single issue, congress would be re elected and every thing would seem fine.

It is a travesty of justice that we don't remember when several terrorists where released just for the sake of the daughter of home minister Mufti Mohammad sayeed. How could a person with separatist views, could become a home minister of India, is in itself a subject of research.

We always hear,why the foreign minister had to accompany the terrorists..What would be the perception,if some clerks would be sent.There would be an issue that government is not taking the issue of safety of the passengers seriously. Isn't it praiseworthy that Jaswant Singh didn't bother about his own safety and went to a completely unsafe land to ensure the rescue of the passengers. He could have died. After the terrorists would walk free,they would have killed all passengers and the clerks,but due to the stature of INDIAN FOREIGN MINISTER they didn't do such things. For the first time in history, Indian government treated Indian citizens so well otherwise we have lots of examples when Somali pirates kidnap Indians and govt forgets them forever.

In congress regimes, India would never register even a meek protest, when there were anti Indian riots in many African countries.

To negotiate...this was the only option left to us due to all the compulsion of a state that has been soft to it's core. Government didn't surrender on their first call. It was stretched so their demands came down to three terrorists. Now there is a question to be asked..What were these terrorists doing idle in the jails of different parts of India. Why could the Congress government (remember,before BJP it was congress government) not prosecute them in time and if they would be hanged for their deeds.Who would the Hijackers demand for? What if another plane is hijacked and they ask for Afjal Guru (latest update is that he has been hanged (?).?

What could other nations do? Could they put diplomatic pressure on Afghanistan? It was not recognized by majority of the countries in this world excluding Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. So, this is ruled out.

It was pre 9/11 world where terrorism was still an struggle for justice.So,it was justified.They were openly called as freedom fighters.

So this idea of not releasing the terrorists was being projected as a Hardliner's view (Hindu Fascist and Blah Blah).If BJP could not manage to save those passengers, It's obituary would have been written then and there.

Now the hope for a james bond character from Hollywood. After watching several movies of Hollywood, we start fantasizing that there could be a character like him,who could enter the plane stealthily and would kill the bad guys.But,practically,it is next to impossible and when hundreds of citizens' lives are at stake,A mature government is not expected to be indulged in this type of adventure.

Now,if there are so many points to prove that BJP was not soft on terror,then why this perception prevails that we can't talk about the terror report of UPA because we didn't handle it well.

The main reason is that every body does not follow the facts through unbiased lense but they rely on Indian Media which is biased to the core.. So we have to fight against wrong perceptions.If media is not supportive, we will have to go to each and every house of India and convey our side of the story. We should develop an intelligentsia in the Indian system so they can create the right perception.

It is true that we should protect those people who are unbiased so they are not threatened to create wrong perception.Pioneer works to support BJP but still what's the reader's graph?

We need some channels and news papers which should be highly popular and we know that perception can be created by cracking a joke also..Why 'Rang de basanti' has hinduwadi neta being shown as a demon???? All this is part of the continuous Propaganda machinery running at different levels.

We need to counter this aggressively, Perception is always very important and it needs to be corrected. we have to ensure that we will never let any body write the obituary of politics of development and nationalism by the wrong perceptions created by opportunist class of society i.e Media,corrupt congress and their cronies.

Thanks. This article was earlier posted here

Lines that inspire....by Harivansh Rai bachan

This piece of poetry has been written by Dr. Harivansh Rai bachan. One of the best hindi poets of modern times. Those who are unaware of him, He is the father of Amitabh bachan.

koshish karne waalon ki

Translated by me, for those friends who can't understand hindi.

Earlier posted on the blog of LK advani.

Why Atheism fails.....?

Let me start this article with a small incidence of my child hood.

When I would go to my mother's village,we would visit farms and there used to be a very weird thing in every farm which I came to know much later that it is called 'scarecrow' in English.Now a scarecrow is something which is irrational, unnecessary and a very childish object  for some one who flaunts himself as a 'Rational'.

A 'rational' person will simply say that it is something which is not real, there is no life in it and if someone believes in it then he or she is not having sense.Now the question is, do the scarecrows actually solve the purpose?

                                  

I am afraid to say that yes they do. They actually keep away the birds and wandering animals who destroy the fields and eat the seeds from the field when the farmer is not near by. It works even better on animals who wander at night and a human look alike statue keeps them away.

Another incident of similar kind comes in mind. In some parts of India, when tribals go to forests, they put a scary mask behind their head. The idea is simply to deceive the attacking animal that the person is aware of it's presence and can see it. Most of the times, they are successful to protect themselves as most of the animals don't attack from front.
Now if we come to the Idea of 'GOD', many atheists will say that it is a false idea and 'GOD doesn't exist.

Let's presume that GOD doesn't exist at all and as nobody has ever seen the GOD as The Denial is not completely baseless due to lack of scientific proofs. That is another case that our science is still in its juvenile stage and can't answer to many questions of life. if we imagine a society which has no such belief of GOD, concept of devine punishment and hell.

Let us imagine a God less society and name this Society as 'dream', Majority of the people who believe in God, they believe in concept of punishment for the wrong deeds done on Earth. This punishment can be imposed upon on Earth and most probably in HELL or may be in next life as Hindus and many other sects do believe in reincarnation.

As  'DREAM' doesn't believe in God and the various concepts related to it, so the citizens of DREAM don't need to be afaraid about any divine punishment.

Now let's compare this Society to another one which actually believes in GOD.

Comparison can be done on a certain behaviour of humans living in both societies.

Now for example, if a thief finds a house open and easy to break into, there are some deterrents which stop him against it.

It is fear of being caught and beaten, the punishment which will be put upon him by man made judicial system or being punished by GOD. 

The dream society will have only two deterrents to stop the thief.

Now if the house is completely abandoned or some how the thief is sure that he won't be caught as human prosecution system is not a perfect system and crime punishment rate is abysmal. In many cases, the judiciary has to give 'benefit of doubt' to the accused so that no innocent is punished. In that scenario, the thief has enough reason to be convinced that his act will go unpunished if he is vigilant and is not caught red handed.

Now the same thief in GOD society has the third deterrent and he is actually afraid of someone whom he can't deceive as GOD is watching on him every moment and even if he is unpunished on earth, there is fair chance that he will be punished in hell or in next life. This feeling of being punished for the crime in all circumstances and no way to evade the eyes of GOD, can actually stop many potential criminals to commit the crime.

Why I say 'potential' as I think, the person who is already a thief has a justification in his mind for the crimes he is indulged in.


Poverty, hunger and sometimes lust to acquire what we can't have by proper means, can force any individual to do the 'wrong' things.

Here we use the idea of 'scarecrow' to chase away those potential criminals who don't fear the weak judiciary and police system but do fear the invisible close circuit camera watching on them every moment.

Imagine that you have 2 cars and your co traveller has none, he can show you a small knife and claim one car as he is needy and he can't be caught easily by local police. Imagine if every poor man who passes by you and your car starts attacking you as they don't have enough to eat and you are throwing parties which cost you millions of dollars. This is what we call as 'anarchy'.

Idea of GOD gives birth to fear in the heart of every person not to commit any thing wrong. It is true that this idea has failed to make the society completely crime free, but it has controlled many things to a very large extent.

And then, even the definition of term 'crime' can be incomplete as in human made crime response system, there are a lot of crimes which doesn't even matter for the police-judiciary system.

Forget the example of the thief and take another case, a man is in relation with a woman and one day he decides to desert her without any fault of her.

Man made system will do nothing if the woman has not signed on some 'marriage paper' and she might have lost few of her golden years and finds it difficult to restart her life, but if there is the deterrence of GOD's punishment, the same man will have some fear to hurt her.

I have known children who use to have nightmares and they were given some talismans and told that god will protect them and it actually helped them to sleep better, so will you tell your child that this is a dumb belief or you would prefer a better sleep for your child.If anyone has watched the hollywood movie 'cast away' with Tom hanks as the protagonist. The part of the story is unforgettable when he uses his own blood on a ball(I am not sure it was for playing football or basketball so I will stick to 'ball') to make a face on it. And the scene when he puts his life in danger to bring back the ball which has slipped away in the sea.
For a 'rational' mind, it can be a subject of ridicule, but that ball is the only friend to whom the lonely protagonist talks and it is what gives him hope. So should we be rational and call it stupid or we let the protagonist get hope at a place where he is alone and condemned to live a very difficult life?

If you have never been to a poor man's hut, please share some of your time with a poor family and you will find that the idea of GOD is strongest in the poor part of the society. When the poor has to sleep hungry, there is one thing that gives him hope and reason not to hurt someone for food and that idea is GOD. A poor man is more likely to believe in GOD as he is more needy of HOPE.

Don't we forget GOD in good times and tend to become believer when in trouble. Now the question arises, why the GOD society does not have a completely crime free society?

As I said earlier, It is not that every human fears god and so GOD society is not a perfect society but then do you think that our society believes in GOD in a perfect way?
 Or if we put the sentence in another way. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT OUR SOCIETY IS A PERFECT GOD SOCIETY WITH EVERY CITIZEN HAVING FEAR OF GOD?


Atheism has become a powerful force in several societies and it is not falsehood of GOD (If he exists) but the society which has used religion to make the life of ordinary citizens as hell, where even an idea which does not fit into the interpretation of majority in the soceity, leads to death sentences under blasphemy laws.

In such situation, I won't be questioning atheism or theism but I would be an atheist not for the sake of being an atehist but to be vocal against the suppression by the close minded warriors of GOD and to register my protest.

I remember one news article of Morocco where a boy was put into prison just because he uploaded some pics questioning existence of God and Richard Dawkins book was found in his house, So If I go to Morocco, I am an ATHEIST with capital letters. 

We strongly need societies where every view point is respected and allowed to be spoken until and unless it creates threat for the soceities in the form of violent attacks and threatens life of common citizens. And This is when societies become civil. 

But in societies where such situation does not exist and views can be expressed, The question arises, should we deny the existence of GOD just because it has no scientific proof or no witness to testify for it and call it irrational or let it exist in the society as it serves the purpose to a larger extent to control the animal instincts that lies in every human being or to give hope to every human as we might boast of being brave but when time comes, humans are the most afraid lot.

I know 'scarecrow' is not something real but why bring it down if it helps the farmer to protect their farms.

If an idea doesn't harm the society and brings order to it, then we don't need to prove it scientifically to deny or approve it, and even if we deny it, we don't need to go and shout about it's falsehood.

These are the several reasons due to which atheism has remained in the stage of an idea in the elite circles where food and richness is abundant and it has not become a popular belief.

This is the short term panacea for a child having nightmare, a poor man sleeping hungry or a man condemned to live a lonely life till the time we find the solution for such problems, even if this idea is 'false', let it remain in the society as it gives one very important thing to us.

HOPE.

NOTE: I personally don't believe the idea of GOD with closed eyes and keep travelling between the 'GOD' and the 'DREAM' society. LOVE.

Disclaimer: Photos of this post have been taken from google images. Those people who got offended by my simple idea of questioning God's existence, please don't issue a Fatwah against me or If you do, i will issue Fatwah against you aswell. ;) And I never had any thought which is final except by origin so if tomorrow I say something else, don't cry over it as I travel through Ideas.

story of an illegal immigrant in Africa

It was a Sunday noon and after procrastinating for 2 days, I sent the weekend reports and I was getting bored when I decided to meet one of my suppliers.

This is from where the story took turn. We met and we started discussing on unnecessary topics as we decided not to discuss business.

While telling me about his life, He turned to a chapter which was quite fascinating and had the capacity to turn into an adventurous Hollywood film.

Let’s take his name as Augustin.

Augustin was quite fascinated to Rock music from his childhood and always copied the singers of American region. This fervour to be a name in the world of rock music gave him an objective in life and that was to reach United States of America.

He applied for Visa several times and it was declined all the times, but he didn’t leave his dream of America which led to an illegal but quite fascinating path.

He decided to go by boat, the Boats which were carrying wood logs to Mexico. He waited for several days, after which he got sight of one vessel on the Libreville Port. After the vessel sailed, it has to anchor for the night. And, this is the time which was apt for Augustin to embark his journey to his dreamland.

He dared to take a small canoe and peddled towards the BOAT which was romantically named as Marine Beauty, and in the darkness of night, He was able to climb on the Marine beauty and hide himself in between the gap of Logs. Now he had to play the patient game of being hidden and fight against Hunger and thirst for few days.

He kept him hidden till the Boat crossed the Port of South Africa and once the Marine Beauty was out of African waters; he came out and showed himself to the Captain of the Ship.

Now, a Vessel like marine beauty could not turn back to Africa to depose one person at the cost of thousands of litres of fuel, so they continued towards Mexico.

That’s how he reached Mexico and created this first and one of the unique routes of illegal immigration from Africa to USA.

Later on, he reached through illegal channels of Mexico and this continued for several years.

This became his usual route between his homeland and his dreamland. The last journey which he had to take again was in 2007 when he was being accompanied by some other dreamers and everybody had his or her own sets of dreams.

He used the same tactics but this time, Luck was not in his favour.

Once he crossed the South African Waters and presented himself to the Captain, the most adventurous part of the story turned over.

The captain was not ready to give them company and decided to depose them off right in the middle of the sea, which meant certain death.

The captain took empty drums and he joint two drums by welding them together and filled it with water. They were 14 persons in total and The captain created 7 floating devices by use of those empty petrol drums and forced them to sit on those drum boats,2 persons each boat to create equilibrium.

And, they were left in the deep blue sea under the open sky with no land in sight.

They floated randomly for 2 days but the one thing that they never lost was HOPE.

After 2 days of floating in the guardianship of God Almighty they saw the land, which was MADAGASCAR.

They flashed some mirrors and some French surfers noticed them. It took more than 8 Hours to reach the bay and they were almost dead by now. Lack of sleep, hunger and cold weather has taken its toll.

11 of them were saved and returned back with help of United Nations.

This was end of his dream journey and He decided to live a real life. Now he is a timber supplier but he still enquires me about the name of vessels so that he can one day find out the captain who tried to kill them and fight a legal battle with him.

NAVNEET

My Journey to Valley of flowers. Part 1

Roads of Uttarakhand.

कभी कभी जिंदगी ऐसे मोड़ पर आ जाती है की इंसान अकेलापन खोजने लगता है.
ऐसे में हमारे पहाड़ सबसे सही जगह हैं अपने को दुनिया की इस आपाधापी से दूर लेकर जाने के लिए.


यही सोच कर एक दिन मै निकल पड़ा पहाड़ों की ओर. सामान बस इतना जो अपने कंधे पे ढो सकूँ.

हरिद्वार के लिए निजामुद्दीन स्टेशन से ट्रेन लिया और सुबह ५ बजे मै हरिद्वार पहुँच चूका था. पता नहीं किस ओर जाऊं फिर सोचा पहाड़ जिधर ज्यादा ऊँचा हो उधर ही जाया जाए. ऐसे में नजदीक के बस स्टैंड पहुँच गया. बस मिलने के साथ ही शुरू हुआ मेरा ये अकेला सफ़र, ना किसी का साथ ना किसी को जानकारी. ऐसे ही पथरीले रास्ते जहाँ हर थोड़ी दूरी पर रास्ते धंस जाते हैं और पता नहीं होता की रात कहाँ बीतेगी. मै चल पड़ा था ऐसी दुनिया की ओर जहाँ जिंदगी सुस्त है पर शांत है.

  १२ घटे का रास्ता है हरिद्वार से जोशीमठ का, जिसमे कई प्रयाग आते हैं जिनका अर्थ होता है २ नदियों का मिलन और हिन्दू आस्था के अनुसार ये पवित्र संगम है जहाँ लोग स्नान करने आते हैं. रास्तें में छोटी छोटी दुकानें हैं जहाँ परांठा और दही खा सकते हैं, ऐसा लगता है ये दिल्ली में पिज्जा हट में बैठ के ऐसा सुख नहीं मिल सकता. उत्तराखंड के पहाड़ों की खासियत है की यहाँ एक तरफ ऊँचे पर्वत हैं तो दूसरी तरफ सड़क के किनारे गहरी खायी है जहाँ उत्श्रीन्क्हल नदियाँ बहुत ज्यादा तेज बहाव के साथ आगे बढती हैं. गंगा इन्ही रास्तों से नीचे   हरिद्वार आती है. थोड़ी सी भी असावधानी घातक  हो सकती है.                                                                     

बस के १२ घंटे के रास्ते को मैंने पहाड़ों को निहारते हुए बिता दिया. इस देवभूमि को सही में ईश्वर ने बहुत सुन्दर बनाया है. राह चलते कई जहग आप पानी के छोटे छोटे झड़ने देख सकते हैं. कई जगहों पे नदी के ऊपर रस्सी के छोटे छोटे पुल हैं जहाँ से गुजरना भी रोमांच भरा है. प्रकृति की आवाजें वातावरण में फैली रहती हैं.
नदी की धाराएं इतनी तेज़ हैं की उनके आवाज से आपको और कुछ सुनाई भी न दे. इन्ही सब बातों के साथ उत्तराखंड एक अपनी ही अलसाई सी सुबह में धीरे धीरे सूरज की रौशनी से भर जाता है.