Soul is sold, Nation suffers

The first thing that came to my mind was the motif  'selling the soul to the devil'. Till now, I never knew the actual story behind it, and I just wikipedia-ed it right now to see if there is any meaningful semblance on what I am writing on. The story goes like this - A German scholar called Faust is dissatisfied with his life and exchanges his soul with a representative of Satan called  Mephistopheles for worldy gains and pleasures. One particular help from  Mephistopheles was in seducing a young and innocent girl called Gretchen who's life was ultimately destroyed but goes to heaven because she's innocent while Faust becomes irreparably corrupted and the Devil carries him off to hell. 

It all sounds so kiddish and like a lot of bunkum. Unless you have been reading the papers the last couple of days, to see that the soul market still thrives around here. Only that the characters differ and instead of a girl a country bears brunt. There is just everything wrong with what our HM Sushil Kumar Shinde blurted out in our 'heir-prince's' coronation of sorts. 

Primarily, let it be borne in mind that the veracity of his claims of 'saffron' or 'hindu' terror could/might possibly be true. But that is just so removed from the point of why Shinde's gaffe is unpardonable. One only has to remember how the government was making half-hearted (atleast) measures to 'act' tough against our rogue neighbors (the Devil eh? from Faust's story) after some dithering on how to react to the most gruesome of soldier beheadings and then a reprehensible denial of having done what they did before the devil's representative, Hina Khar, accusing India of war mongering. Angry rants by citizens on how Israel would have created a crater in Pakistan (Porkistan is how some people include me refer them these days) had the beheading happened to their men. Such chest-beating not withstanding, the half-hearted measures came about and then came the Jaipur screw-job. 

It begs the question- Are people like him up there who make laws and decisions that stupid/careless/insensitive/unpatriotic or do they just have a short-term memory? Because - 1. Unless he was careless he would have seen how this would render all the diplomatic pressure, as feeble as it might be, even softer as Pakistan would definitely pounce on the chance to absolve themselves of any wrong-doing. And not only that, it would erode any credibility that India would have while looking for foreign support to resolve issues. Because this is not some passerby who has said it - it's the HM and his words will be recorded everywhere including the UN where, unfortunately, Porki has now a temporary Observer status.  2. If  he was insensitive, well I needn't say more, everyone knows he just followed his leader's instructions and all that minority appeasement stuff. 3. Or he had short term memory loss because similar comments were said at similarly inappropriate times (more on that below) and hadn't learnt from his predecessors/colleagues mistakes.

Among all, the insensitivity stands out. It's quite so brazen. Let's be clear on one thing. The congis were assembled in Jaipur for a brain-storming session-cum-Rahul-coronation. To break their heads over how to improve their showing and their image among the masses and what to have as propoganda. There was absolutely no necessity to harp on security or terrorist issues or disclose what investigating agencies unearthed (not that he disclosed the entirety of all terror related investigations either which would in all possibility have shown a distinctly different trend from what Shinde blurted). Yet he just had to churn out venom. Quite clearly vote-bank politics. How does it help? Rahul's effect bombed in UP last time. UP is a big state that might be a game-changer in next year's LS polls. And they believe this will help them win a chunk of the muslim votes (I don't know how, you better ask themselves if you're curious). Backing this theory is out-of-power-twice Lalu Prasad Yadav (Bihar, but similar lines) who was among the first to defend Shinde saying he had just stated what is true, so there's nothing wrong. We're all used to D(P)igvijay Singh, so it is no surprise he jumped to Shinde's defence too when he validated Shinde's 'facts' but disagreed with 'words'. "Terror has no religion or colour" said he. Agreed hundred percent! But Digvijay, Shinde and co don't, though they claim so. If they did they won't have repeated the cacophony for the third time:

1. Someone, P Chidambaram I think but I'm not sure, used it immediately after 26/11 when they attributed a 'Saffron Terror' angle  for the respected cop late Hemant Karkare's death, because Karkare was probing Malegaon blasts in which Hindu outfits were involved. Porki bought time asking Indian intelligence to probe that angle too in the 26/11 attack. Thankfully the govt brushed past it.

2. Rahul Gandhi, sometime.

3.And now Shinde...

If they truly believed Terror has no religion, they wont make the mistake THRICE and correct it THRICE!! (or more). It shows all these are deliberate and are followed up by patchwork to control damage. Shinde's original defense is all the more bewildering. He said " I have said nothing new. I just told about the 'Saffron' Terror we have seen in the past". Apparently it was an attempt to still hold BJP and RSS as patrons of terror while somehow detaching the mention of Hindu from his original statement. Does it really make a difference? Not in the least. Saffron is the color of robes worn by holy men, it's one of the three colors in the bands of our national flag, and the flag association is worth mentioning again. Also, any Hindu who took offense to 'Hindu terror' isn't as dumb to not know 'Saffron terror' refers to them again. Are Shinde and co, in the same vein, ready to regard the blasts in 26/11, Delhi, Varanasi, Mumbai many other times too etc as 'Green terror'? Whether they mention by the religion's name or its most prominent color, it makes no difference.

But this was no way a bolt from the blue if you think about it. Even if you disregard the 3 previous saffron terror gaffes. Akbaruddin Owaisi who claimed that 'it will take us 15 mins to kill 100 Hindus' was allowed to provocate and fly for treatment(escape) to London. A definitive case of hate speech but both the Congress govt in the state and the Home ministry sat on it.Until the pro-congress and pseudo-secular media woke up to dissenting voices from the public and mounted pressure on both govts. But what takes the cake is this gem from our man of the moment Shinde - he referred to JuD chief Hafeez Saeed (the world knows him as one of the most wanted men by the CIA with the US placing a $25 million bounty for his head, is on Interpol notice and two accused in US courts have pointed at him about the 26/11 attacks) as (drums rolling) 'SHRI' Hafeez Saeed. Which goes to mean that Shinde revers/respects/honours/holds in high regard someone responsible for the death of 166 people including a few Israelis and other nationals. So either the CIA, Interpol etc are all nuts or the govt must seriously consider renaming the Padma'Shri' award to something else. (should we now pity Shri Shri Ravi Shankar for having not one but two Shris in his name?) The camaraderie between Shinde and Hafeez has been reciprocative. Shri called Shinde as 'the only decent man who has the guts to speak the truth'. Lets get one thing straight - who do terrorists praise? Does anyone concerned feel comfortable when the HM of the country receives unreserved praise from an evil man who orchestrated an attack of the magnitude of 26/11? Do they share anything special? And the big thing is that Shinde, till this minute as I type, has not disowned the praise. Even as Shri asks the US and India to place RSS and BJP on the list of terrorist organisations. Yes. Hafeez asks India to label its principal opposition party on the list of terrorist organisations and everyone from Shinde to Sonia to Digvijay to Rahul are all ears to it.

See where it has all lead. From, albeit under pressure, moving tough on nasty elements in Porki, it has come to a stage that the nasty element uses the statement of the HM to demand that two big organisations/parties inside India are included in US's terror list. Yes that big ignominy of India having two big names labelled as terror (there are already few in the terror list but those are naxalite organisations and not political parties, not bodies that are likely to represent India on the international front, so the ignominy is less). And this is the last move before Porki would move for India to be labelled as a 'terrorist state'. The shocking thing is not that the request would be heeded by the international framework for they know better.The shocking thing is that this has given so much legroom to Porki for making such heinous requests and making such blasphemous statements at a time when , following the beheadings, they should have been completely blocked off and tied up. As an Indian everyone must bear in mind that the issue is not about hurting Hindu sentiments. As important as it may be, it pales when you see that the bigger fallout of this episode is that mindless, irresponsible and insensitive faux paus has empowered an enemy which seldom respects our national integrity and unity and has demoralised all our intelligence agencies who have been doing their job to corner the enemy.  National shame? Think.

Can you now write the Soul sale to the Devil story with new players for Faust, Mephistopheles, the Devil and Gretchen...??