Movie: Black Friday

I watched Black Friday recently. This post is only about story; movie no doublt is excellent, from all angles of movie making. It is based on a novel by the same name, and claims to tell the shocking truth behind the Mumbai bomb blasts. I have changed the sequence of the events, as the movie is based on the flash back mode. The only question remained is that the time line for the movie starts from the Karsevaks breaking the old mosque structure, and not from Babar's controversial destruction of Hindu and other temples. 

(From the movie…)

Volunteers from across the India, called Karsevaks, reached Ayodhya in thousands of numbers despite government's attempts to block their way. They broke the structure of the old mosque with their hands and hammers and constructed a small temple there. Country erupted in flames. There were religious riots, between Hindus and Muslims in many parts of India.

There were two major riots in Mumbai, one in December and other in January. The first one was natural, but the second one seemed to be propelled by politicians, a party to be precise. The casualties were majority amongst the minorities, of course in proportion with their population. But, what was shameful was that the police and the administration helped the majorities. Police were seen even shooting the minorities, who fled the city in large numbers in whatever train they could catch.

After the riots, a powerful group of mafia, and rich people funding them, belonging to the Muslim faith, met in Dubai, and discussed how their religion was "insulted". How it was now very difficult for the Muslims to live in India. They felt the need to "do something", something that can "terrorise" the majority Hindus, in their words, something because of whose terror, whenever a Hindu saw a Muslim, he won't dare to look into his eyes, and will wet his pants. Tiger proposed that Mumbai being the financial capital of India, would be targeted, and a serial blast across the prime locations will tell the whole world that the Muslims have taken revenge against the atrocities they suffered in the riots. Barriers of the Islamic flag, in the richness of Dubai, sealed the fate of India, and agreed to support and fund.

Tiger Memon was the individual with a large following in the city, plus he had the support of Dawood Ibrahim. His office was burnt in the last riots, and he wanted revenge. He formed his team. They brought in suppliers of RDX (called black soap, or kala sabun) and AK-56s to India by bribing custom officials and police. Selected persons were sent to Pakistan, where they received training under the personnel of Pakistani Army. They were brain washed by numerous stories of how Hindus raped their wives and daughters. The team waited to take their revenge, to teach lessons to the Hindus. They returned back, and according to the plans of Tiger Memon, they planted RDX across prime locations including Air India building, BSE stock exchange building, inside a bus, near a petrol pump and Dadar railway station. The bombs blasted at timed intervals. More than 300 innocent Indians were killed, and thousands injured.

The team went underground. Tiger Memon and his entire family had already shifted to Dubai a day before the proposed blasts. Mumbai police started enquiry under experienced and honest personnel. Police was ruthless; they got the suspects behind the bars, and in series of arrests got hold of some of the team members. They got their mouth opened. One after the other, police made headway, as their accumulated information about the blasts increased. The team members ran from Delhi to Jaipur to some towns in UP, to Kolkata and so on. But in the end, they were tracked and caught. Human rights activists protested, and the police's reply was: "What about the human rights of the 300 people who are dead in the blasts?" Most of the team members got caught. Tiger Memon remained out of sight. Several years after the blasts, court announced verdicts to the convicts.

The message from the movie: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind: Mahatma Gandhi"

Why I like Narendra Modi

Whatever be the respective ideologies, I like the men who are men: those who stand by whatever they believe in and take on the whole world if needed. My earliest memory of Narendra Modi is in a discussion hosted on a television channel. Mr. Modi was then the BJP spokesperson, I guess. There was a Congress leader besides him and the host was throwing questions at them, more often they passed comments on each other's party. What I liked about Mr. Modi was his clear, precise, direct, and disciplined use of words. And above all: his honest belief in whatever he said. It was around 10 years back, and much water has flown in Narmada since then. Modi got more than his share for whatever happened in Gujarat. But he never bent; never released is vent on other leaders, or never complained in frustration. You need real guts to be a Narendra Modi!

Mr. Modi spoke at the recently concluded HT Leadership Summit. In his speech, he declared: "I am obsessed with my state's welfare. And then, they did the question and answer session on him. Here are the left over:

Do you fear your past? Do you regret the riots?

The truth will finally dawn on the people. Its the people who will decide my fate and I am answerable to none but them.

On the fate of Muslims under your regime, what percentage of people backs you?

See for yourself: When the Narmada waters reached Sabarmati, the whole city benefited. But you ask what percentage got the benefit. You see a division. You have to change your mindset.

Whether Hindutva would take a back seat to development this poll season?

Gandhiji's Ram Rajya and issues like Hindutva are also relevant.

Define Ram Rajya.

Ram Rajya to me is nothing but the concept of a welfare state.

Why did you take five days to compliment Irfan Pathan on his performance in the T20 final?

I wanted the people to debate why no one had bothered to reward the policemen who gave up their lives thwarting Pakistan-backed terrorists in Ayodhya.

Reference 

Silence of the lambs

We Indians have learnt to forget real miseries in our lives but are over reactive on hypothetical issues. Remember some of the recent controversies. Be it the debate over existence of Rama, debate over 123 nuclear deal, rocketing share market, or some older issues like Adavani's remarks over Jinnah, Shankaracharya's prosecution, etc, all are the controversies made out from trivial issues; mundane issues blown out of proportion. While the real issues are hardly discussed; e.g. farmer suicides, rapes in Delhi, mob justice, corruption in judiciary, perils of political alliances and misuse of governors by centre. In fact, there are some journo who have made a brand of themselves by highlighting such issues which are left in the dark by the mainline media; but they are few. The lures of coming back in the main stream are strong; justifications of being politically correct are many.

Everyone loves conspiracies. So came the scoops and "caught on camera" scandals. Each TV news channel was put on the field with hidden cameras and team of sacrifices; casting couch was the buzz word then. We laughed at Shakti Kapoor's perversions; some felt sorry for him, some enjoyed. Everyone was happy, the viewers, the journo, the TV anchors, the editors; except the humans inside the celebrities. We also witnessed the (self proclaimed) breaking news oftener than ever! Even the terrorists became media savvy and started bringing themselves to news studios to surrender, with clean suits and just-made beards.

Also came the highly self-celebrated attempt of media to show off themselves as saviour of civil rights. Everything was fine, but one incident shook my faith. Somewhere in Punjab, women activists were carrying out protests. The police came to disperse them. And police are generally male, we all know. Four policemen reached out to two girls and in the name of escorting them out, one policeman inserted his hand inside the shirt of one of the girl. The two girls cried and wept. Now, the TOI cameraman snapped a great picture; the next day paper came out with the picture and a great story. The irony; the picture clearly showed the faces of the two horrified girls, but the turban-sporting policeman's face was hidden. TOI followed up the case for some days, and informed that a case has been registered against the molesting policemen. And then, everything became normal. The paper had hotter issues to discuss. I kept waiting for a follow-up, but the day never came. Every time I remember that incident, and I feel the same anger and hatred equally at the corrupt police and the corrupt media men.

Our media keeps discovering that Indians adore celebrities. See the manner in which Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's visit to India, or the marriage of Abhishek and Aishwarya was covered by the media. It also brings some glamour back to the media men; they get to discuss Angelina's T-shirts and AB's sideburns.

Now we are witnessing a new trend: media won't cover unattractive news, no matter how grave are the consequences. And government makes sure that it makes its wrong doings unattractive enough; let the conspirators starve… The term "murder of democracy" has lost its charm a long ago. When governors act as puppets and everything starts being dictated by "the" family, no one raises a brow. Our media hardly debated, forget protesting, the way Goa state government was thrown out. Many issues are branded humdrums and reduced to three liners on the 28th page.

But one clan seem to enjoy it all: the advocates and the judiciary. Public hate politicians like plague, and the administrative machinery have long ago lost trust. Therefore, all eyes look up to the judiciary  only hope of justice! And they seem to enjoy the limelight. I hope you read about the manner in which the Mid Day journo was punished. And the way SC still doesn't agree to bring in checks and balances within the judiciary. An overall fallout, finally.

Another trend: virtual world is becoming a reality. There is a completely new world out there. They challenge the unchallenged. They are over reactive on the issues which deserve the treatment. They prosecute the culpable everyday, in their writings. They debate, argue, throw out, tell stories, sing, groan, console, boost, or spread the word. They are "Citizen Journalists". And hence I say:

Silence of the lambs is challenged

on the

blogosphere.

What to preserve

To preserve or not to preserve: that is the question in Mumbai?

Of late there is a large hue and cry in the media, mainly among a section of elite journo, to protest the redevelopment of Crawford Market in Mumbai. The sprawling building of the market got its name from the then Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai, Arthur Crawford, and was built in the 1860s. It is said that the markets were the best designed in Asia at that time. It is situated very near to CST, and is counted among the famous heritage structures in the area. The market may be the best architectural design of the gone time, but the fact that it is still operating on a currently inefficient layout, and is located on prime land, makes it a target of the redevelopment wave. Today, authorities want to redevelop the land, and build multi storey market complexes in its place, with a FSI (Floor Space Index) of 4.0. Conservation activists demand no one to touch the buildings, as long as they begin to resemble ruined Coliseum, I guess.

The initial decision to redevelop the building was rather controversial. It allowed the redeveloper to demolish existing structures measuring around 17,000 sq m out of the 22,471 sq m market and with the new FSI of 4, the new area available would be around 65,000 sq m. [ExpressIndia] But one Shailesh Gandhi investigated and did some estimation after obtaining information through RTI. He concludes that the proposed redevelopment would mean that the tenants and developers would make Rs 770 Crores and public losses from this project is around Rs 500 Crore.[Case] That is because of the unfair or lacklustre bids selection process.

According to the new proposal under consideration, only three colourful fountains will go. Quoting the Express India:

But as part of the proposed re-development, the fountains, which are not part of the main heritage wings, will have to go along with some other small articles of heritage value like the cast iron pillars and gas lamps.

The conservation activists are not allowing even to touch the buildings. So the question arises: Should we Indians of 21st century remain prisoners of the fancy of the British, and preserve their hobbies and crafts at the cost of our interests and convenience? And for how long?

I believe the markets should be redeveloped even at the cost of the present building. Because:

The markets and buildings don't affect the daily life of the people of Mumbai.

The markets are not related to any sentimental, religious, or social aspects of the junta, this sole fact should guide what to conserve and what not to.

There may be greater malaise behind the demand to conserve the markets. May be there are vested interests for some builders, or competition among them.

Redevelopment, with a high FSI of 4 will accommodate a lot more traders, and the vertical development will help remove the congestion from the area. Imagine, the new space available would be 65,000 sq m, while the existing one is around 22,500 sq m only!

The three fountains and some other articles can't be of enough historical value, to justify cancelling the project.

What concerns me is that the controversies regarding the integrity of the plan, and the fair process in selecting the right developer. There is a need to ensure that the redevelopment is done properly, with an eye of the public interest. And BMC has the resources to ensure that.

Ref: A walk through the old Crawford market, Abha Narain Lambah (Conservation Architect), HT, 24 Sep 07, Heritage committee defers decision on Crawford Market , Crawford market makeover still on , Crawford Market – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , Heritage lovers frown at Crawford Market redevelopment plan

Celebrations?

A small news item in size, but big one in content:

The UP government on Sunday said it would not allow the group of Britons who plan to celebrate their forefathers' victory in the 1857 Sepoy Munity to hold any function. The BJP and Muslim organisations demanded an immediate ban on the entry of the group in Lucknow. PTI

The question is, what did those Britons think of the Indians before they flew down to India?

Ref: HT, 24 Sep 07, P8