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Showing posts from October, 2009

9/11: The Untold Truth

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Close to a decade has elapsed since we witnessed those incredible visuals on TV of the twin towers in New York crashing down to earth. The henchmen involved in the attack have been taken for dead in the suicide attacks, save for their masters, long believed to be the hard-core Islamic terrorist organization, Al Qaeda and the man supposed to be at its helm, Osama Bin Laden. At the time the FBI declared Bin Laden as the mastermind of the carnage, their were more than a few skeptics with eyebrows raised in incredulity, and not unnaturally, at the deduction of the investigative agencies. It was simply hard to digest the fact that a few men hiding in the desolate mountainous terrains of an equally desolate country could gain access to the resources that were employed in the highly sophisticated operation. Anyway, the conclusion was arrived at, and accepted by the world at large, and gave the Americans the license to run over any part of the world where they felt the ‘suspects’ were holed up

The Peace Nobel: A Decadence of Nobility?

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Consistency is not an attribute that can be strictly associated with all human beings, however emancipated those human beings may be. Whatever is noble can never be guaranteed to get nobler or, at the least, to stay as noble. It is unfortunate that the nobility of the Nobel Prize for Peace has been the latest victim of this fickle trait. There is no doubting the fact that puzzling rationale has often been applied in the selection of awardees for the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet, the choice of Barack Obama for the 2009 award surpasses many a farcical selection. Barack Obama was rightly and pleasantly surprised (‘astonished’ might be more apposite) to have found himself a Nobel awardee one fine morning. The arguments of the Nobel committee in favor of the strange decision have been based on the premise that Obama has taken ‘decisive’ steps in the direction of attaining world peace. A hardly cogent argument that, considering that Obama is yet an infant in the field of world politics, still in s

Gandhi's India - A Vision Distorted

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Visuals flashing across news channels today reminded me and many other Indians that the time has come once again to spare a moment of our lives to reminisce over the greatness of the Father of The Nation. As I watched the ceremonial homage being paid to the Mahatma by the various political leaders and their well-rehearsed speeches in praise of Bapu’s principles and values, I found myself unable yet again to ward off strong thoughts of cynicism from intruding inexorably into my mind. The bevy of political bigwigs making a beeline at Raj Ghat looked so much like a shameless exhibition of hypocrisy that the solemn occasion lost all its austerity in my eyes. Mahatma Gandhi gave himself up for the cause of an India free from the reins of imperialism. That he achieved his dream of living in an Independent India, that too without having to indulge in or abet any form of violence was an incredible feat in itself; a feat that should have heralded the beginning of a new India built on the founda