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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Sania Mirza, M.F.Husain and Ajmal Kasab

This post is a response to this blog-post. My repeated attempts to post the following in comments section failed. Hence I am posting it here at oshantomon. Here goes:

I could not agree with your viewpoint on any of the three things you mentioned.
I also rub my hands with glee since this post of yours gives me an opportunity to pen my cliched thougths and do blog-whoring too.

Sania Mirza: I would have liked a world where Arabian Sea on our west extended further north till Afghanistan. In other words, a world without Pakistan. Since that is not to be, the only other good option is peace. If events like Sania can create even an iota of one-voice, I welcome it.

M.F.Husain: Husain did not show his paintings to me. So he was in no position to offend me. He let me down though. I believe in freedom-of-expression. Husain let me down by running away. He should have fought the court-cases in India. His money and fame would have ensured a constant media coveage and that would have served the cause of freedom-of-expression greatly. He would have been slightly inconvenienced but his money could take it. I do not believe Husain was under any serious-tangible threats from fundamentalists.
More of my thoughts on this topic and freedom of expression here, here, here, here and here.

Kasab: We could have killed him the very next day. We CHOSE not to do so.
Will it create incentive for the next mercenary? May be yes.
Will it show India as a softie? I don't believe so. Anyway, in reality, world opinion does not count much. So no harm there.
Will it create a possibility that in future some terrorist forces us to negotiate Kasab by taking some hostage? Yes. However the point of failure will be the hostage situation, not the act of leaving Kasab alive.
Does the one year trial raise India's position in international opinion? I do not give it a damn. The international opinion, as I said earlier, does not count much. In international relations, might is right.
The fact remains that we CHOSE not to kill him in a hurry when we COULD do so. As a nation, this makes me feel very proud. And powerful too. It is not a logical feeling, meaning I can not explain why exactly I feel proud. But I do feel proud, immensely so.
Slightly unrelated, but more of my thoughts on this topic here.

The title of this post is making me a bit queasy as it clubs names of two Indian achievers (who make many Indians feel proud) with a terrorist. My request to the readers is to treat the title as just a title and surmise no deeper meaning underneath. I would not have to write this title if I could post it in the comment section of the original post.

4 comments:

astatine said...

You have started a healthy debate. I could go on and on.... but he is my counter point.
Sania: Where the world has not been broken into fragments by narrow domestic walls....into that heaven of freedom....let my country awake. Lets see Sania Mirza try to break down atleast one of those walls...Then I will salute her.
Hussain: Yes, I am not one who can afford a Hussain and I wouldnt have even known about it if it were not for those radical fundementalists. But back to my original query. Would he have dared to paint a hijab wearing Wife of the Prophet like that? ( hope this comment does not get me on a fatwa!)Even in Goya's paintings, I prefer the clothed Maja. It is about misuse of artistic freedom. Just because hindus are a bit more tolerant, dont take advantage. Even Saraswathi is a woman first
Kasab: Yes, we followed the law in his trial.He will now appeal and appeal, sit in prison for twenty years like Nalini, the Rajiv killer and then ask for pardon. And NDTV will have a huge debate on it in year 2030. They were on a suicide mission anyway, so why let them live? Dont make them anti-heroes. Public memory is like Ghajini. Justice soon, lest we forget.

Sambaran said...

@Astatine.
Thanks for your comments.
Regarding Sania, I guess we have a truce.
Regarding Kasab, I see your logic but still cannot agree with your conclusion. As I owned up earlier, my stand is clear to me but the reasoning is not.
Regarding Husain, I will respond in somebody else's words. The link to the link of one Phillip Pullman here:
http://www.deeshaa.org/2010/04/01/philip-pullman-on-being-offended-and-free-speech/

Srinivas Muthadi said...

I agree with your views on Kasab. People get emotional when dealing with cases involving terrorism. What I feel is he is just a pawn in a big game. Just hanging him would not solve the problem. Handing him a life imprisonment and leave him after serving the term is the best solution.

Sambaran said...

@Srinivas,
Speaking for myself, I never feel like letting Kasab go free. It should either be death or real-life-imprisonment (not the 14 year variant).
The important thing is that we are doing it through due process of justice. I do not believe hanging him in heat of moment would have detered any potential bomber/terrorist.