One India: Same India: Assam -
Sunday, 22nd Nov 09 - Twin blasts within a gap of 40 min, 8 Killed 50+ injured. How many candles did the Mumbaikars light?[link]
On 30th Oct 09 Assam silently remembered the victim of the serial blasts, 9 in total, that left 90 dead and 800 injured in 2008.[link]
April 09 - Assam again saw serial blasts, killing 8 people.[link]
I would not even dare to tread the path towards the even lesser known and ignored states of Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya but if you care, do a basic google news search on any given day with these states' name as key words and you will only see blood all around.
When was the last time anybody lit a candle for any of them. I don't have the statistics handy, but the number of people who have died in the North East of the country, and in region / language / caste / gender / sexual politics runs into 100,000s.
No body cares, they don't even know about the blood and gore going on in so many parts of the country. From media to the youth on twitter, the so called 'one India' consist of Bombay, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad and few more.
So much talk about unity and solidarity, why can't the people of Mumbai come out in large numbers on the street when another home grown terrorist tries to divide and kill people on the basis of language and region? Why don't they come out light a candle hold hands and dare Raj Thackeray, why don't they look straight into his eyes and tell, we would stand united no matter what language we speak.
But they won't do that, they would rather stay away from language politics. Because it is not their problem. It is not the rich and influential who are being beaten up by Sena goons. Only the poor, low class, labour class suffer.
Tonight these people stand in this very fashionable style of remembrance and solidarity, all the English speaking rich and influential, the actors, pop stars politicians and industrialists neatly lined in front of NDTV cameras holding hands. Did you see any body from the low class, the rickshaw puller, the coolie? No! Because who cares about their solidarity, only the rich should unite and collectively step on the poor's shoulder.
Talking about Pakistan not doing enough to curb terrorism growing in its land, when was the last time any country did anything about the terrorism growing in its land? How about India for example? What about the Naxals / Maoists? How many more terrorist attacks will it take for Indian Government to take action against them? If we can't tackle these state grown terrorists what right do we have to point a finger at Pakistan?
So people please stop talking about this myth of one India, for all I know its a disgrace towards the marginalized states and communities to brag any of these activities as symbol of unity and solidarity.
I am sorry to say but on this anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks I can't help but being at my cynical best. Cynicism, despair, anger, frustration and helplessness have hit an all time high. All these talk of unity and solidarity seem to be such overstatement and the idea of one India is such a farce.
One India: Same India: Assam -
Sunday, 22nd Nov 09 - Twin blasts within a gap of 40 min, 8 Killed 50+ injured. How many candles did the Mumbaikars light?[link]
On 30th Oct 09 Assam silently remembered the victim of the serial blasts, 9 in total, that left 90 dead and 800 injured in 2008.[link]
April 09 - Assam again saw serial blasts, killing 8 people.[link]
I would not even dare to tread the path towards the even lesser known and ignored states of Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya but if you care, do a basic google news search on any given day with these states' name as key words and you will only see blood all around.
When was the last time anybody lit a candle for any of them. I don't have the statistics handy, but the number of people who have died in the North East of the country, and in region / language / caste / gender / sexual politics runs into 100,000s.
No body cares, they don't even know about the blood and gore going on in so many parts of the country. From media to the youth on twitter, the so called 'one India' consist of Bombay, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad and few more.
So much talk about unity and solidarity, why can't the people of Mumbai come out in large numbers on the street when another home grown terrorist tries to divide and kill people on the basis of language and region? Why don't they come out light a candle hold hands and dare Raj Thackeray, why don't they look straight into his eyes and tell, we would stand united no matter what language we speak.
But they won't do that, they would rather stay away from language politics. Because it is not their problem. It is not the rich and influential who are being beaten up by Sena goons. Only the poor, low class, labour class suffer.
Tonight these people stand in this very fashionable style of remembrance and solidarity, all the English speaking rich and influential, the actors, pop stars politicians and industrialists neatly lined in front of NDTV cameras holding hands. Did you see any body from the low class, the rickshaw puller, the coolie? No! Because who cares about their solidarity, only the rich should unite and collectively step on the poor's shoulder.
Talking about Pakistan not doing enough to curb terrorism growing in its land, when was the last time any country did anything about the terrorism growing in its land? How about India for example? What about the Naxals / Maoists? How many more terrorist attacks will it take for Indian Government to take action against them? If we can't tackle these state grown terrorists what right do we have to point a finger at Pakistan?
So people please stop talking about this myth of one India, for all I know its a disgrace towards the marginalized states and communities to brag any of these activities as symbol of unity and solidarity.
