On Tuesday, 18th July 2006, a week after the Mumbai blasts, the whole nation or atleast some parts of it, observed a minute of silence in the evening to "show solidarity" with the victims. The fact that we are in general a very emotional population, this event helped the media to not only increase its TRP but also to exaggerate the import of the gesture. It was a gesture aimed to tell the victims that, "All of us are with you in this moment of tragedy". That's it. But to say that it was a gesture that gave a "strong message to the terrorist" is simply ridiculous and this was what our media did.
Each time a bomb blast takes place injuring innocent men, women and children, apart from the politcal rhetoric about winning the war on terror, these sentimental-solidarity-expressing gestures have become a commonplace in India although neither the government takes any concrete action against the terrorists and their networks nor do we demand that from the government. I believe the only way we can offer some consolation to the victims of terror is by hunting the terrorists down, putting a freeze on their activities and accounts and convicting them for all the heinous crimes they have so far committed.
The power of silence can neither stun nor scare the terrorist. A mere expression of solidarity cannot defeat terror. The sooner the media, the government and we the people realize it, the better it is for the nation.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Silence
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4 comments:
Check this out
The very first sentence reads:-
The Department of telecommunications has instructed internet service providers to provide "unhindered access" to net users except for some specified webpages.
Whoo-hoo!! Orwell's vision is finally coming true!
In the above, you need to click on the "Check this out." Just in case you were wondering.
Anyway, this gives you all the stories.
I am no fan of any political party. But isn't it curious that such clamping down on peoples' freedom of expression always occurs during a Congress rule? The poor NDA gave the media too much rope, and the media hung them with it. Also, as you and that article by Ram Madhav suggested, a firm hand would perhaps be the only solace we could offer the families of the victims. After all, none of us is either Gandhi or Christ to forgive and forget.
Arjun, to access each of those blocked sites, all you need to do is go to,
this site,
and type the address of the blocked site in the search bar at the top right corner of the page.
For example, you can type, "hinduunity.org",
one of the blocked sites.
PS: You might be knowing this, but I just wrote it because it gave me a sort of satisfaction remniscient of "1984".
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