Eunuchs!

These are figures of major terrorist attacks in the last five years, not taking into account the countless killings happening almost every other day in the Kashmir Valley.

When	Where	Killed
01-Oct-01	Jammu-Kashmir assembly	35
13-Dec-01	Parliament, New Delhi	12
24-Sep-02	Akhsardham temple, Gandhinagar	39
14-May-03	Army camp, Jammu	30
25-Aug-03	Mumbai	60
15-Aug-04	Dhemaji, Assam	16
29-Oct-05	New Delhi	65
28-Dec-05	IISc, Bangalore	1
07-Mar-06	Varanasi	23
21-May-06	Srinagar	5
25-May-06	Batpora, Srinagar	4
11-Jul-06	Mumbai	200*
11-Jul-06	Srinagar	8

* not final figures

Sadly, these numbers are not mere numbers. They are the count of everyday people like you and me who were unfortunate to be target of terror strikes. There was no war. Life was peaceful and everybody went about their daily lives. Some went to school, some to office, some to visit friends, some to the temple, and some, just to catch a movie. Only, they never returned back. Out of nowhere, when they least expected, suddenly, a blast, a bullet… and its all over. Their lives, and with that, their dreams, plans for tomorrow… Everything. Just like that.

The consistency of these attacks are frightening. And we all know that 7/11 is not the last of these attacks. The next one is just a few months away. It could be anywhere, any city. Maybe a crowded bus, a shopping mall or a busy street. I could be there. Maybe on the way to meet my sister, maybe drinking coffee with my friends, or maybe buying grocery with my mom. Next moment, me, my mother, friends and many others whom I have never known will just become another row in the table above.

What can be done to prevent further terrorist strikes?
Eliminate the terrorist camps (in PoK).

Who is reponsible to do that?
Government of India.

Is the government doing anything?
???

And that, is our biggest tragedy. Our government will do nothing to prevent its citizens from becoming targets of terror. Well, you can’t say that they haven’t done anything. They have asked Pakistan to dismantle the terrorist camps in PoK. So fellow countrymen, don’t worry. Its just a matter of time before Musharraf clears PoK of all terrorist activities and then we all are safe.

The measures largely are reactionary and insufficient. Efforts are on to nab those who actually carried out the blasts. Sketchs have been released of the criminals and cops across the country have gone on overdrive. Mostly they will turn out to be misguided, brain-washed youth from our own country. Will catching them in any way contribute towards prevention of future attacks? Why is the government not trying to eliminate the root cause? How many more attacks, bomb blasts, innocent lives will it take for the government to wake up from its slumber?

On 9/11/2001, United States became target of terrorist strikes for the first time. The US government went on an all out attack on Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Next they targeted Iraq disregarding international opinion. All for safety of its citizens. Result – not a single terror attack since then.

Contrast that with Indian Government’s approach.

Eunuchs!

Butter Chicken in Ludhiana with 1 Peg Patiala

India is everywhere these days. Particularly on magazine covers. Outside India, India has just started shining. But Pankaj Mishra begs to differ. In his op-ed in NYT titled “The Myth of the New India”, Pankaj Mishra shatters the ‘myths’ surrounding the New Shining India.
He starts of by listing some of the success stories, most of them already repeated countless times in media – both national and international. New found friendship with United States, Software and BPO boom, booming metros with swanky shopping malls. As one would have guessed, these are just setting up the premise for the myth-busting to start.

Mishra argues that Lakshmi Mittal’s success is as Indian as Sergey Brin’s(Russian-born Co-Founder of Google) success is Russian. Mishra conveniently ignores(do you think he didn’t know) the fact that Mittal completed his education in India and moved on to international scene only after starting his career in India whereas Sergey Brin, though born in Russia, grew up in United States and is pretty much an American.

Mishra further enlightens that India is not a capitalist success story because communist parties won state elections and the stock market came tumbling in last two weeks. Firstly, India is not a *capitalist* economy. Even if it is(he is quoting from Foreign Affairs), does voting trends in a few states (highly prone to anti-incumbent voting pattern) indicate the economic system of the country? And since when did a fall in stock market become an indicator of failed capitalism?

Mishra would also like us to believe that the nuclear co-operation deal between US and India is the result of “encouragement” from “powerful lobby of rich Indian-Americans who seek to expand their political influence within both their home and adopted countries”. Had this been a TV show instead of Op-Ed, we could have had laugh-tracks in the background.

This one had me in splits.

“Despite a recent reduction in poverty levels, nearly 380 million Indians still live on less than a dollar a day.”

I can picture an average New Yorker reading this article and exclaiming, “Less than a dollar a day! Geez!”. I got the link to this NYT article from SlashDot. In the comments section there, readers have listed the things you can buy with a dollar in India. If I were Pankaj Mishra, right now I would be rushing to the restroom to clean the egg on my face.

Then he goes on to quote some statistics like poor per capita GDP, HDI ranking, malnutrition, infant mortality rate and poor state of primary education. Same old vicious cycle which we all remember from our 8th standard social studies essays.

“Malnutrition affects half of all children in India, and there is little sign that they are being helped by the country's market reforms, which have focused on creating private wealth rather than expanding access to health care and education.”

“Despite the country's growing economy, 2.5 million Indian children die annually”

Economic progress has no meaning if it doesn’t improve the lives of citizens at all levels. But by saying that half of the country’s children are malnourished in spite of economic reforms is twisted statistics and pessimistic. What was the IMR and level of malnutrition before economic reforms? How much has it changed in the last ten years? Here’s a very impressive detailed study which documents exactly that. The study concludes that there is vast improvement though there’s a long way to go.

Mishra’s myth-busting journey is vast and highly imaginative.

“Feeding on the resentment of those left behind by the urban-oriented economic growth, communist insurgencies (unrelated to India's parliamentary communist parties) have erupted in some of the most populous and poorest parts of north and central India.”

So economic liberalization of the 90s resulted in naxalism in 1967. Patiala peg at work here, I guess.

“Only 1.3 million out of a working population of 400 million are employed in the information technology and business processing industries that make up the so-called new economy.”

Didn’t the “so-called new economy” ring a bell with Mr Mishra? Hello…it’s a new economy. And what about the indirect employments and businesses that the IT boom has generated? As per NASSCOM projections, the next four years will see 2.3 million more direct jobs and 6.5 million indirect jobs created in the IT sector.

Clearly Mishra sees the glass as half-empty, or rather likes others(western world) to believe so.

There is no denying of the fact that our problem are far from over. Illiteracy, unemployment, poverty and abysmal living standards have always been there and are still there. But amidst all this, some things are changing. Growing up, we used to hear that one day India will become a super power like USA. None of us knew how. But it was a school-boyish dream we all dreamt. Now we are slowing moving towards the realization of that dream. We can sense the change. The world media is abound with stories of the new shining India, the second fastest growing economy, success stories of IT sector and Indian entrepreneurs. In the middle of all this, when an Indian writer/journo comes up and enlightens the world that all these are myths and states the obvious failures and short-comings of our country, it sounds sadist and unpatriotic.

To overcome this hang-over I suggest you Good News India.