Grammar of powerBy Jawed NaqviThursday, 19 Feb, 2009 | 11:53 AM PST |[...]A former editor of a leading English daily in Delhi rejoices in his competence in Urdu poetry, an asset he has learnt to put on display as a lawmaker in parliament. In his intervention on the tragic events in Mumbai, the MP was expressing outrage at the government’s tardy response to the gruesome killings.Though an advocate of 'two eyes for an eye and a jaw for a tooth' in the war on terrorism, the MP found himself quoting Josh Malihabadi with neither the context nor the lines making any sense against his blind rage. A bigger tragedy was that there was no one in the house or in the media to correct him.The original couplet goes thus:'Koi hadh hi nahi hai ehteram-i-aadmiyat kiBadi karta hai dushman aur hum sharmaaye jaate hain'.It's a celebration of the exalted human race that though faced with an underhand assault by a fellow human, is only embarrassed at the lack of civilised demeanour in the adversary. To be sure Josh was hardly making a biblical case for gory revenge, as the MP would have us believe.[...] [link] [emphasis added]
We must have pondered only briefly over what seemed like an irrelevant and unnecessary religious reference. We had to find out who the above mentioned MP was.
Karan Singh, Shourie match poetic witsArun Shourie, commenting on India's response to Pakistan, recited a couplet by Josh Malihabadi. "Zulm karta hai dushman aur ham sharmaye jaate hain," Shourie said, underlying that even though the enemy (Pakistan) continuously led terror attacks on us (India), we were still shying of fighting back.Karan Singh, who opposed the suggestion of calling off the peace process, quoted Shakeel Badayuuni in response by saying, "Ek zarra idhar, ek zarra udhar. Nafrat se na dekho dushman ko, shayad woh kab mohabbat kar baithe." In other words, meaning that treat your enemy with love as you never know when he may start loving you. [link]
We don't know which is the bigger tragedy here since Jawed Naqvi might have got the story second hand with significant transmission losses. Perhaps the tragic part was for us to even attempt to read this column. If this is a typical sample of Pakistan's civil society, we want refund from our seculars.
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chennai/Man_beaten_to_death_by_residents/articleshow/4157633.cms
A man who spoke in hindi,who did not know tamil has been beaten to death by the public.
WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE IN the mainstream media?
Lawyers assault Subramanian Swamy in the presence of Judges.
When the police go to arrest the lawyers including one Immanuel ,Hell breaks loose.
Police are attacked,they retaliate and a police station is torched WITHIN the High Court Campus.
The Acting Chief Justice Mukhopadhyaya who had hauled up the police the previous day for not providing security to Swamy capitulates in the face of Tamizh chauvinism stops the police from arresting the lawyers.I agree with the Acting CJ’s decision as things would have got uglier because Mr.Swamy is involved.
WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE in the mainstream media?
Where is the outrage, you ask?
“There is a great crowd coming one day into our lives, if that be so,” Sydney Carton struck in, in his moody way.
The footsteps were incessant, and the hurry of them became more and more rapid. The corner echoed and re–echoed with the tread of feet; some, as it seemed, under the windows; some, as it seemed, in the room; some coming, some going, some breaking off, some stopping altogether; all in the distant streets, and not one within sight.
“Are all these footsteps destined to come to all of us, Miss Manette, or are we to divide them among us?”
“I take them into mine!” said Carton. “I ask no questions and make no stipulations. There is a great crowd bearing down upon us, Miss Manette, and I see them—by the Lightning.” He added the last words, after there had been a vivid flash which had shown him lounging in the window.
“And I hear them!” he added again, after a peal of thunder. “Here they come, fast, fierce, and furious!”
A Tale of Two Cities, Book second, Chapter six.
That is how the social justice game usually ends, no surprises there.
The communists roam free, even go on killing and raping rampages unrestrained. But communal people must be exterminated without trial.
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