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Borderline Patriotism Or The Bangla Bungle |
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These are fundamentalist times, you see. Torturing and mutiliating human beings is the only way one can attain salvation. Politics is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Patriotism is the last refuge of a politician. And fundamentalism is the last refuge of a patriot. So when 18 Indians are done to the bone by Bangladeshis, it is the right time to raise the patriotism bogey. Call them names, and hang their effigies. We Goliaths hardly have the b**ls to hang them Davids. So we are told that our border guards were caught napping. And those inhuman Bangladeshis did not even bother to wake them up from their slumber. Big deal. What were these men supposed to do? They were posted there to sleep, or what? All figuratively speaking, of course. Cause, if we are to believe the report that appeared in The Hindustan Times on April 26, 2001, those 18 men were left in the lurch by their own compatriots. So much for patriotism and saving one's skin.  These are astrological times too; doesn't matter whether you have a Bachelor of Science degree in astrology or not. The fault, have faith in me, lies in the stars. Not in us; we are not and we cannot be Caesarian underlings. Perhaps, the Indian jawans did not consult the stars when they planned to evict those heinous Bangladeshi guards. Will someone, from now on, ensure that every company has a bona fide soothsayer. Still on the issue of stars, one wonders what happens on a starless night. Patriotism thrives when the Sun stops shining brightly, I am told.Jingoism thrives in the umbra of nescience. Wanna know how? Just cast a cursory glance at the results of those who wanted to make their vote count in one of those daily polls conducted by a major portal. Close to 80 per cent of the 10,000 patriotic Indians who polled were cocksure the border skirmishes were a direct fallout of the Union Government's cliched neglect of the Northeast. Rubbish (one is not allowed to use four-lettered words on this site, you see). It is like asserting that the ozone layer hole is getting bigger by the day because the Chiapas are not yet in power in Mexico. It is akin to insisting that compressed natural gas (CNG) is better than petrol because Robert de Niro starred in Taxi. It is futile to argue with the masses. This is a democracy, you see. The majority is always right. If the masses say so, then so it must be. But we all know, if the issue of a nuclear war with Pakistan were to be put to vote, the verdict would overwhelmingly be in favour of nuking those meddlesome Mussalman neighbours. Sometimes ochlocracy and democracy, perhaps, denote and connote the same thing. Anywayz, in a democracy we always have the politicians we deserve. And the politicians have the (ignorant) masses they preserve. Where ignorance is bliss, it sure is folly to be wise. So let's keep shut and call it periods. Bloody or otherwise. RECENTLY ON JAAL: Bill Clinton's Hidden Agenda The Tapes: Replay The Naked Truth About Sinha's Dream Budget Give Us This Day Our Daily Disaster A Dip Into The Kumbh Hype Hype Hurray The A 2 Z Of Y2K What's Behind Bush? The Florida Ceasefire The Damn Dam Controversy A Weak-Kneed Operation Faster, Higher, Stranger You Have The Right To Be A Volunteer The ICE ICE Baby A Tale Of The Jungle King The Secret Autonomy Report Report When Batsman Became Betsman India's Human Genome Projectile Stone Age Flaws In ICE Age Laws A Dry Spell For Policy Planning Lara's Theme Dotcom Bubble Gum: Burst Or Bust Inside A VIP Cell A To Do About Dos A Dress Code For Klintonji Subir Ghosh is the Editor of Northeast Vigil and author of Frontier Travails, Northeast: The Politics of a Mess SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK ABOUT THIS ARTICLE:
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