'Patriotism comes in many flavours -- justice is not one
of them'
E-mail from readers the world over
Date:
Fri, 09 Jul 1999 19:55:35 PDT
From:
"Random Walk" <ppk_25@hotmail.com>
Subject:
Francois Gautier 's Hindi-Chini bye-bye
Gautier speaks words of wisdom. Every Indian, whether in India or elsewhere, should learn from him. Isn't it time we started seeing the Chinese for what they are, dictators along the lines of Stalin, who have no scruples or morals, and are willing to use every trick in the book to get what they want?
I would recommend that everyone read about the North Korean menace. Where did they get their arms from? Who is supporting them? And what is the rest of the world doing to China?
Date:
Wed, 7 Jul 1999 22:03:32 -0400
From:
"Ravi Chaudhary" <bevco@netcom.ca>
Subject:
Anil Nair
History has shown that only strength and power can keep a nation safe and whole. Self-reliance and the physical power to back words with deeds are what will keep it strong. Anil Nair should look at the respect China commands from the world, including the USA (who did back down in the Taiwan Straits).
India has been down this route before -- 1947, 1965, 1971 -- and each time has made peace at the urgings of other interested parties and well-wishers. These well-wishers could not stop 1948, 1965 or 1971. India did go to the UN in 1948. What was the point? It did not stop the torture and mutilation of our soldiers.
These same well-wishers declined to provide a "nuclear umbrella", or for that matter protect our security. Has China been persuaded to vacate Tibet? The Pakistani forces refuse to vacate even though they have been caught -- does Nair seriously think they would have vacated if they had firm control of Kargil?
Nair also needs to look at this conflict beyond the previous 50 years. Indeed, he needs to look at the history of Islamic fundamentalist aggression since 700 AD and the continuing tide and finally the creation of Pakistan. Today Pakistan controls Pakistan, and what was Afghanistan. After Kashmir, there will be fresh pastures for the rulers of Pakistan. After all, in the name of religion, the Islamic fundamentalists did rule India for over a thousand years.
Kashmir 1999 is just an interlude, and there will be other wars. History does repeat itself.
Ravi Chaudhary
Date:
Thu, 08 Jul 1999 13:28:53 -0500
From:
Sridhar Kompella <kompella@ecn.purdue.edu>
Subject:
Adm Nadkarni on the Video War in Kargil
In saying that 65,000 lives were lost in the Vietnam War, the admiral is discounting the likely hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese who were killed by the Americans. If my memory serves me right, there are about 58,000 names of American soldiers on the Vietnam Memorial. And I am sure more than 7,000 Vietnamese perished in the war.
While on the subject of the television coverage of the war, I would submit that the Kargil crisis coverage seems to hinge on the army spokesperson's statements in Delhi. There are few, if any, pictures of the actual war zone (unlike in the Gulf War or the Balkan bombing). While there is talk of "truckloads of evidence" of Pakistani involvement, there is not much visual proof. The same applies for the Pakistani regulars' active role and weaponry. The government, ineptly and expectedly, aided by Doordarshan has lost an opportunity to convince the world once and for all about Pakistan's direct involvement. The private channels have not done exceptionally well either.
Thanks,
Sridhar Kompella
W Lafayette, IN, USA
Date:
Wed, 7 Jul 1999 10:04:41 -0400
From:
"Sridhar, Mirajkar V, BGM" <sridhar@att.com>
Subject:
Great article!
This was one powerful article that I have read in a long time. Hats off to your penmanship. I must say I echo everything that you have outlined. Though at times I felt you were a little harsh on the Pakis, but this is what we as Indians need. We have had this 'bhai-bhai' attitude with our neighbours for too long. No negotiating, just do what you are there to do. Clean up our motherland of all intruders and defend our borders.
Jai Hind!!
Sridhar
Date:
Tue, 06 Jul 1999 19:58:10 -0700
From:
Staff <info@2buysell.com>
Subject:
Kanchan Gupta's apology is needed
So according to this columnist, the Indian Army's Haneefuddin, who laid down his life in Turtuk, was a barbarian...
I don't know if my email will do anything, but Kanchan needs to apologise for his use of words because he has offended Muslim Indians who love India the same way as any Hindu. He needs to look into Haneefuddin's mother's eyes and say the same words he has used in his article. I don't think this fanatic will have the guts to do that.
Regards,
Ramanjit
Date:
Wed, 7 Jul 1999 17:44:53 +0200 (DFT)
From:
Surajit Sengupta <surajit@plato.physik.uni-mainz.de>
Subject:
K Gupta on "The Paki intruders.."
Though I agree with most of the substance of this article, I abhor the tone. What compels the author to compare Islamic "barbarism" with Hindu "civilisation"? India is NOT a Hindu country. It is a secular, democratic, modern nation. Over the years one can count numerous evidence for Hindu barbarism -- so let us not make stupid mistakes here. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians and Communists are being killed for the defence of their country. We do not want such idiots muddying the waters now.
Surajit Sengupta
Mainz, Germany
Date: Saturday, June 26, 1999 6:57 AM
From: Ajit Tripathi <atripathi@unixpros.com>
Subject: The Kashmir Problem and Why I am Not a Patriot
I quote Amnesty International's report on disappearances in Kashmir:
'Disappearances' appear to have been used sometimes as a punitive measure. Following the alleged rape on 22 December 1996 of 16-year old Atri in Village Hakoora Badasgam in District Anantnag, her family filed a complaint with police and Atri made a statement before the chief judicial magistrate in Anantnag. When the Rashtriya Rifles unit reportedly responsible for the rape learnt of this attempt to seek justice, they picked up Gul Mohammad Shan, Atri's father, and took him away. His whereabouts could not be established afterwards.
According to reports, the RR unit threatened the remaining family members to the extent that they locked their house and moved away. No one apparently now dares to pursue the complaint about Atri's rape or her father's 'disappearance'.
Patriotism comes in many flavours -- justice is not one of them.
I come from a region that has given birth to the most fierce and patriotic soldiers in the world. In 1948, 1965 and now in 1999, the Kumaon and Garhwal regiments have defended our nation with unprecedented ferocity and valour. In fact the first Param Veer Chakra was awarded to Major Somnath Sharma of the Kumaon Regiment posthumously. And all of us stand in pride and honour bequeathed to us by such young men. These men have fought for a country that was founded on the principles of equality and justice. A nation born amidst dreams of Ram Rajya and Swarajya -- none of which have been accomplished.
I can't forget what Mulayam Singh's government did to the mothers of the men who are laying down their lives for the country today. I can't, because I look upon those women as my mothers and sisters -- a part of my extended family.
And that's precisely why I don't blame a Kashmiri young man of 20 who looks upon our security forces as oppressors and is seething with rage to exterminate them.
To you and I, India is our motherland -- it brings hopes of a bright future and memories of lush green fields, close parents, a great culture and Sachin Tendulkar. We love India even more than our lives, yes we do. But does this 20-year-old Kashmiri, who has the same dreams and hopes, love India too? This young man who had his sister gang-raped and his father probably tortured to death by our 'heroes'?
Should he? Can he?
Should a Sikh whose brother was burnt to death in the 1984 riots, can he love India? Are these young men traitors? What would you do if you were them? What did we do when the juggernaut of British atrocities came rolling?
I don't blame my high-school batchmate in the army for opening indiscriminate fire when the guy he just dined with falls to the ground, blood gushing from his neck. He is doing that in self-defence. He is a hero if he brutally exterminates the mercenaries from across the border and he deserves love and respect for that. Yet he deserves capital punishment if he rapes a 16-year-old in revenge. The first guy is my friend and he is still a hero -- the latter is a war criminal. He is a barbarian and deserves to be treated as such. My relative in the police who savours the memory of having shot three peaceful peasants in the heart in the peasant revolt of Pantnagar deserves the same treatment.
We confuse between the nation and the government. We do elect the people in power, but do we get to elect the system in power? The system that raped Atri, the system that killed at least 2,477 Kashmiri civilians in seven years? Do we get to change it? Do we have the courage to face the reality that such a system indeed exists and that system is not the nation -- at least not my nation. So what if the Pakistanis and the so-called Islamic militants are barbarians? They aren't a part of me, but India is such a big part of me.
The government blames Amnesty for being a propaganda machine and we believe the government -- 'till it happens to one of us'.
My nation can't condone systemic violence against a community or class. The system that does, doesn't represent me and you and therefore it must go. But as long as this system keeps perpetrating inhuman atrocities on any of us -- be it the Kashmiris, the Assamese or the Nagas -- I deserve a share in the crimes it commits. I deserve it because I kept quiet too long, because I escaped into my simulated world of patriotism.
India is not about the land in Kashmir or the land in Garhwal. India is not the politicians or the political system they represent. India is the people who live in Kashmir and in Garhwal and in the rest of the country. I am a patriot in that I stand with those people. But I am not a patriot if the word means killing the same people -- whatever the situation may be.
If we want our kids to enjoy the lives they get in the next century, we must ask: am I beginning to look like Hitler, Roosevelt -- or Slobodan Milosevic ? Let's give the 21st century a chance to be better than the 20th.
PS: "First they came for the Jews -- I didn't say anything because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Communists -- I didn't say anything because I wasn't a Communist... In the end they came for me and there was no one left to say anything for me."
Date:
Mon, 05 Jul 1999 23:34:35 -0400
From:
rkattil <rkattil@cwix.com>
Subject:
Point 4700, Varsha'a articles on Kargil
On the cold, clear, moonlit night of Monday, June 28, 30 or so, Indian soldiers climbed a vertical frozen peak to attack the enemy on top. Their success came at the terrible cost of their lives. Peak 4700, in my opinion, was the defining moment of the war.
Winston Churchill, in his famous speech, referred to the British military sacrifice at Dunkirk, as "their finest hour". (I could be wrong about the battle; it may have been another). Point 4700 was the finest hour of the Indian defence forces.
There has been a lot of talk recently about who can call himself an Indian and who cannot. I believe those of us who read about the bravery on Point 4700 with pride of the success in our heads, a pang of sadness in our hearts for those who laid down their lives, goose bumps and misty eyes from a combination of pride and sorrow -- if anyone feels these, they can truly call themselves Indian.
I live in the US. Last week, I attended two separate get-togethers of Indians. When the issue of Kargil came up, people talked as if the loss of 200 lives was not that big a deal. More than that, many soldiers die each year, one told me, from accidents. Maybe. I don't have the stats. But here is the connection to the point Varsha raised: Many, many American soldiers die in accidents; training aircraft crashes, boat capsizes... But in the books of American public opinion, this is stored away under a different account.
Five Marines dying in a chopper crash is quite different from five Marines being killed by someone. Just as Varsha noted, the latter situation almost guarantees some kind of military response. A white colleague of mine, an ex-Marine, exclaimed when he saw the reports of mutilated Indian soldiers, "Your cousins in India have to do some serious a**-kicking", he said. "I used to think Pakis were cool, but now I know those mother******s need to be s***wed in a serious way." Now if only the rest of the Indian intelligentsia could feel half that emotion!
So, to the conquerors of Point 4700: This is your finest hour, you made India and Indians all over the world really proud.
Rajeevan Kattil
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