The Media Circus – ‘Stop insulting the intelligence of your readers!’

Dear Sir,

Reference the  ‘arrant and cowardly nonsense ‘,  that goes for ‘Opinion’ – ” Giving peace a chance” – (TNIE- 12 JAN).

We are well aware of the ‘herd mentality’ or is it ‘mob mentality’ of the secular Indian English media. There are too many examples to be cited here. However, the latest in the New Year Media Circus – or shall we say – the Dance of the Clowns – is ‘ Give Peace a chance’, for improving and moving forward the ‘silent talks’ on J&K , ‘Talk to Pakistan’ !! All and sundry, including the ‘Wagah Candle Light Brigade’, the ‘Jholowalahs’ of differing hues, and, of course, the so-called ‘intellectuals’ of the media have jumped on this bandwagon !! A wonderful ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ to start the New Year !!

This ‘Dance of the Clowns’ was teed off by a Joint Editorial Statement on New Years Day by the Times of India and the Jang Group of Pakistan. True ‘Bollywood Melodramatic Tearjerker’. Wonder whether the ‘Maut Ka Saudagar’ lyricist wrote this Edit?!! Fit for the Speakers Corner at Hyde Park : ‘ Peace between India and Pakistan has been stubbornly elusive and yet tantalisingly inevitable. This vast subcontinent senses the bounties a peace dividend can deliver to its people yet it recoils from claiming a share.A social compact based on a simple yet powerful impulse — Aman ki Asha. A desire for peace.’ ADABARZ !!

I read the JANG online daily. If ‘Aman’ was truly the intent then TOI had missed the irony in the name and the record of its Pakistani partner. It is said that in so far as India is concerned the daily effort of the Jang is to live up to its name!! Any wonder then this ‘Joint Nautanki’ came for severe criticism, sarcasm et al over blogosphere !! Here is what the noted and well known security analyst B.Raman wrote in his blog, titled: “TOI-JANG BHAI BHAI! , on New Years Day: ” And yet there has never been genuine peace between India and Pakistan.What is the reason? Not Kashmir. Not Balochistan. Not the Lashksar-e-Toiba and the myriad terrorist organizations to which the State and civil society of Pakistan have given birth. Barring China, no other country in the world thinks and talks well of Pakistan and its people. No other country in the world triggers more negative vibrations in the hearts and minds of people than Pakistan “. And the reason for these negative vibes, according to Raman: ‘ Because of the distorted interpretations of Islam in Pakistan ever since it was born in 1947″.

Not to be left behind in this New Year ‘Tamasha’, the TNIE has also jumped onto the bandwagon!! Cheers!! Thus readers of TNIE got a glimpse of the Koranic injunction of Al Taqiyya in the form of the ‘Kashmiri Jihadi’ Firdous Syed’s ” “ A battle of nerves between India, Pak “ – (TNIE – 11 JAN). Today Neerja Chowdhury. Who is on the list for the morrow, Sir? Be that as it may, Neerja wrote: ” The govt. of India is committed to a dialogue process. So is the govt. of Pakistan So is also Washington, which is interested in quietening Pakistan’s eastern front to persuade Islamabad to focus on fighting Al Qaeda – Taliban – Haqqani – Let networks on its western front.”

There are any amount of open source literature that shows that the Pakistani Army is going against ONLY the Taliban (Pakistan) or TIP. It is YET to commence operations against the Haqqani group or Afghan Taliban, and in all probabilities NEVER WILL , for strategic reasons. Pakistan Army going against LeT?? That’s the JOKE OF THE NEW YEAR. Only a maudlin Indian brain will indulge in such wishful thinking !! Abdul Hafeez Syed is walking a FREE MAN in Pakistan RIGHT NOW !! Do please stop insulting the intelligence of your readers!!

On 11 Jan in a perceptive Article in The Hindu, Praveen Swami wrote: ” How real is the threat of such attacks taking place again? Most experts believe the question ought to be when — not if — they will occur. But most experts believe the cessation in major jihadist attacks is temporary. Jihadist training camps are up and running — ready for the time when international pressure eases on Pakistan. Already, the ISI has been testing India’s responses by targeting its interests abroad. In October, the Afghan authorities blamed Pakistan-based terrorists for an attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, while the police in Bangladesh prevented an attempted assault on the mission in Dhaka the following month “.

But ‘TALK’ we must !! As the well known counter-terrorism analyst Ajai Sahni wrote: ” India is unique in the world and in history; we are the ONLY country to have argued that a strong and united ENEMY is in our Interests !”

For the ‘peaceniks’ and the assorted ‘Jholawallahs’ who have assembled in Delhi for ‘Peace Talks’, here is what G.Parthasarathi, former High Commissioner had to say about these ‘candlelight comedians’: ” Why don’t we see them lighting candles at Wagha pleading with the Taliban to moderate their Islam”.

Lastly, to the ‘talkathon’ mob: Whom does India talk to? Zardari is fighting against Gilani. Gen. Kayani, the puppet master, is running circles around the so-called ‘civilian democratic government’. And as for the Pak Army itself, Sushant Sareen, who has written with deep insight on the goings on in Pakistan stated: ” The bottom line is that instead of the Pakistani Army exercising control over its JIHADI ASSETS, the Army itself has become a STRATEGIC ASSET of the JIHADIS”. Corroborating Sareen, Seth Cropsey wrote a ‘chilling’ Article, titled: ” Will There Always Be a Pakistan? “. He wrote: ” Fissures within the military could tear not just the army but the entire country apart. It’s coming sooner than you think.Pakistan’s military — the lynchpin keeping the chaotic whole together — isn’t getting stronger. It’s threatening to fracture from within. And today’s fractures may well turn into tomorrow’s chaos”.

So, my query to Neerja is : “Who does India Talk To?”

In an excellent Article posted in the website rediff.com on 29 Jun 2009, Sushant Sareen wrote: ” While negotiations are always a preferred way to resolve disputes, they will never be fruitful until and unless there is a genuine desire on both sides to seek some sort of a middle ground on which a deal can be struck. But if negotiations are only a smokescreen or a diversionary tactic for a nefarious game-plan, then quite obviously the negotiations will be a dialogue of the deaf. The book, Shadow War — The Untold Story of Jihad in Kashmir, [ by Pakistani journalist Arif Jamal ] only reinforces the apparent futility of any dialogue with Pakistan at this stage.

May I invite Neerja Chowdhury’s attention to Walter Lipman in his “U.S. Foreign Policy: Shield of the Republic”: ” A nation has security when it does not have to sacrifice its legitimate interests to avoid war, and is able, if challenged, to maintain them by war”.  What the ‘peaceniks’ are acheiving is in ‘MAKING WE INDIANS A MOTELY BUNCH OF COWARDS’.

Any wonder then nobody takes India seriously? JAI HO !!

VANDE MATARAM