I have high hopes on you guys! If any one of you (for now) manages to establish a secular democracy, I will throw a party. BTW Sudan party is confirmed 🙂
Question: Was the government right in arresting BJP leaders, who marched to hoist Indian flag in Srinagar, Kashmir (India)?
Before you answer this please consider this:
Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi organised a march in Dandi to “illegally” produce salt, against applied tax by British Raj in India. It was “within” the political boundaries of India, had a “political aspiration” with a motive of achieving a “political goal”! Now, back to BJP:
Disclaimer: As any liberal need to announce this, to avoid branding. My support here is issue based and this statement is not sarcastic.
South Sudan voting for its independence, and we will have a secular country in six months, in one month we will come to know about it! I see it as India-Pakistan of Africa with one country with single defined state religion/language while the other being multicultural and secular (and corrupt). Whatever it may be, I congratulate south Sudan (or the name they call it in two months) all the very best.
All southerners need to do is to turn up at least 60% and vote at least 51%, and boom! There is very little chance that South will vote for unity (after all things happened) that would be unfortunate. Good news is, so far they dint find anyone who wants to vote for unity (look at us! Celebrating defeat of unity 🙂 ). There is also a tiny chance that north will deny the independence for south (as happened in Burmese election). But for the time being let’s not put this idea into their head.
I will be celebrating it with a Champagne, in February, so will billion others around the world. This probably will be most celebrated divorce ever, for a million reasons. A small fraction of those million reasons I can think of are:
Peace! After couple of million killed over couple of decades.
Home rule, spending its own money on their own country!
There will be roads, schools and hospitals in south! Which rest of the world built centuries ago? (Fact: First tar road out of any town in South Sudan being laid in 2011)
Multi-cultural! Good to have no dominant culture which decides how rest of the tribes can be flogged!
There is international community to help newborn country. BTW Did I mention George Clooney is my favourite actor?
Once advice for South, don’t be precious on Abyei region. We have a similar situation here, we call it Kashmir.
We all have read the bloody stories during birth of Pakistan. This is from “The birth of Bangladesh”. A story Colonel Nadir Ali of Pakistan (west Pakistani officer posted in east Pakistan) recalls it during 1971 war. A perfect example of “modern” war ethics. There is more in Wikipedia. if you would like to read further on this. Pakistan still holds this attitude towards her(his is it?) minority, and unfortunately they take “not in genocidal level” as a compliment!.
During the fateful months preceding the dismemberment of Pakistan, I served as a young Captain,
Rayerbazar killing field photographed immediately after the war, showing dead bodies of intellectuals (Image courtesy: Rashid Talukdar, 1971) - image via wikipedia
meantime promoted to the rank of the Major, in Dhaka as well as Chittagong. In my position as second-in-command and later as commander, I served with 3 Commando Battalion.
My first action was in mid April 1971. “It is Mujib-ur-Rahman’s home district. It is a hard area. Kill as many bastards as you can and make sure there is no Hindu left alive,” I was ordered.
“Sir, I do not kill unarmed civilians who do not fire at me,” I replied.
“Kill the Hindus. It is an order for everyone. Don’t show me your commando finesse!”.
I flew in for my first action. I was dropped behind Farid Pur. I made a fire base and we fired all around. Luckily there was nobody to shoot at. Then suddenly I saw some civilians running towards us. They appeared unarmed. I ordered “Stop firing!” and shouted at villagers, questioning them what did they want. “Sir we have brought you some water to drink!”, was the brisk reply.
I ordered my subordinates to put the weapons away and ordered a tea-break. We remained there for hours. Somebody brought and hoisted a Pakistani flag. “Yesterday I saw all Awami League flags over your village” I told the villagers. That was indeed the fact. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Later the main army column caught up to make contact. They arrived firing with machine guns all around and I saw smoke columns rising in villages behind them. “What’s the score?” the Colonel asked.
“There was no resistance so we didn’t kill anyone,” he was informed.
He fired from his machine gun and some of the villagers who had brought us water, fell dead. “That is the way my boy,” the Colonel told this poor Major.
The Bach 