WRONG TARGET, YES --- BAD AIM, NO. I refer to the first editorial in The Telegraph today. And let me go back a little early; the news that the new NDA (?BJP-RSS) Governments (re)writing history of Indian Freedom Struggle. According to that view Kshudiram Bose was a terrorist, not a patriotic freedom-fighter. One would not be very wrong in assuming that the editorial was made to toe the governmental line, to please the ones in power. The long debated question: TERRORISM OR PATRIOTISM? Where does one draw the line? The editorial made a very justifiable statement; if innocent lives are lost, that is terrorism. Kshudiram Bose wanted to take the life of Kingsford and threw the bomb at the car he mistakenly believed to carry Kingsford. That sort of mistake is unfortunate and regrettable, but not unheard of. But to hint that he did not know what patriotism meant and he blindly followed what his mentors and gurus is utterly rubbish and maligning. What made the Editor Sahab think that the mentors and gurus did give such instructions? Does he realise that if indeed such directives were given the lives lost of innocent people would have rise to an unimaginably large number? He was only 19; was he capable of understanding what patriotism meant? What a stupendously silly remark. Brilliant, really. Well human civilisation has developed by cumulative knowledge. But from 1908 to 2014 is not enough span of time for that. And the age to be able to vote was fixed at the age of 18 quite a few years ago. And the Editor Sahab may remember that it was the first time voters who made a significant shift to BJP; it is more or less a general consensus. Editor Sahab, what would you call Israeli attacks in Palestine? Drone attacks in Afghanistan? Actions of Hitler? Bombings in Iraq? And I do condemn the attacks on train, the killings in railway stations and hotels. And there are others as well from all sides of cast, creed and religion. I do condemn them when there are mindless killing. It is not a very happy world that we live in. But this particular instance, I say loud and clear, does not fall in the same category. Yeas the target was wrong but the aim was not bad. It is not a crime to try to please the power; but this shameless maligning hurts.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 17:55:07 +0000
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