Socrates states (my favourite quote) that the objective of a government is make its people better. it is a vague thought but quite true from every point of view, even through the eyes of cheats, thieves, murderers and betrayers (I do regard them as the worst of fiends). The events pertaining to the India, Pakistan disputes over the years and over the Mumbai blasts have brought about a question in my mind that I don't have an answer to and am afraid that my (and others) emotions should not be mixed with. The question is " What should we do with Pakistan ?". If these guys were 10,000 km's away, I would be content with focusing on a strong internal security reformation process but that these guys/gals/terrorists (All three different categories mind you) are present about a few feet away from us really puts a knot in my neck. War is something that my emotions really want but not my head. With our military might, I think that we might loose a few million Indians (might ease some burden on the country, devilish of me) but in the process, we might create another Iraq and an even more permanent parasite. Hence, maybe the solution might be (oh lord) is more troublesome and frustrating, Talking.
Fareed Zakaria (Newsweek) has a good point (in my opinion) that maybe the Muslim community is indeed facing some discrimination in India and that the government (Congress) is in Denial, which is not to say the BJP is any better (They think that all Muslims are terrorists just short of Shah Rukh Khan maybe). As a man of Hindu upbringing (I am more of a nonbeliever than anything at the moment), I don't think that I am the right person to say that I know of their plight or what they face from the 8:1 majority of Hindus. However, since there are 400 million Indians below the poverty line, I do think that 260 million Hindus are not much better off that the 140 million Muslims (assuming that all of them are in this economic zone). There are dalits and other perceived lower caste citizens that face discrimination as well (not to mention lynching and honour killings).
Hence, the one common point which outlines this post is the hidden deceit portrayed by our ridiculously uneducated and stupid media (exceptions do occur but rarely in India's case). The best part is, they themselves don't have any idea of their own stupidity. I mean, golden dyed hair, fake accents, funny looking faces and, of course, the utter lack of intelligence in asking decent questions to public figures, really brings out the Hanna Montana in them. Our media is biased, wrong on many counts and irresponsible, which is the perfect recipe for propaganda. Rumors that certain premier dailies put any article for the right price is probably true since the increase in circulation doesn't justify the increase in profits and more often than not, rumors of corruption in India turn out to be true. However, I do give them credit for bringing out the assholes in our society and uniting the country in some form. But in the words of Stan lee, 'With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility' and these guys need to learn this.
I think that the media can actually help stem out terrorism (A bit) in the following ways:
1. Show the plight of poor India (Hindus, Muslims, Christians etc) not as a single case study at a time, but statistically and factually (deaths, number of children, infant mortality, etc). I suspect that the numbers will change little through the religions.
2. Maybe take cues from politicians and interpret them as a positive message (like maybe a politician saying that the Babri Masjid demolishing was a big mistake and uncalled for or that the Godhra riots were an injustice).
3. Create websites that don't have shaadi.com adverts and other colourful banners and instead, get leading journalists (including economists, anthropologists, professors and maybe political heads) to talk constructively, instead of finding superficial proof of our neighbours terrorist activities through dead beat and unknown loosers (we know that terrorism comes from somewhere but not the sky).
4. Last and the hardest, go after our politicians with some guts. I wish there were more journalists like Vineet Narayan (Hawala Scam) who were not afraid of the consequences. (Sorry Barkha Dutt or Ms. Roy, but we have enough FM channels already).
I just want to say that as a nation, Media is a channel for interpreting facts and hence, this medium needs to be as unsimulated as possible.
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