Dheeraj DeeKay™

“Our hopes have been cauterized, our imaginations infected.”

The biggest anti Hindu propaganda then was Ramayana where villain Ravana was shown as a great Brahmin who is also made to be biggest Shiva devotee and then to add more insult he is made to rape some celestial lady and later he was shown abducting Sita. It was out and out propaganda to defile Brahmins and to show Hindu god in bad light.

Aditya Dhar should be made to write new epics surely.

Where do their loyalties lie? Indian army or daddy supreme? And what is their definition of nationalism and nationalist? Is it to stand behind Indian armed forces or daddy prime who regularly finds supporting rapists and murderers?

Indian army or rapists? Guess which will the Hindu vote base choose?

The title is a comment under Sabhi Kuch Hai Tera Diya Hua Ghazal sung by Iqbal Bano and penned by Faiz Ahmad Faiz. Iqbal Bano has sung select verses from Faiz’s ghazal. Full ghazal and its English translation are below. The translation is from me and is of course not perfect or anywhere close to poetic brilliance of Faiz but is only offered for those who don’t understand Urdu and can get some…

As per the Indian government, India is teeming with infiltrators (ghuspaithi). These illegal people have entered across India in Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal, Kerala and so on. And they are in large numbers. They, as per the Home Minister, the Prime Minister and other important people in the Indian government, come from Bangladesh, Pakistan and elsewhere. They are, according to the Indian government…

Many complained how they were not even offered water to drink.

This is not the first time nor will it be the last time.

Problem is two pronged. One of course is the government end of it where we do not have laws or rules for these situations. All laws from banking to mobile networks to air travel are for safekeeping the companies. For every small mistake there's law to punish the customer. Low balance? Fine. Flight date change? Pay due. You can't even receive calls now when your data pack ends. There are no plans without data just to receive messages or calls. But is there a law to punish companies for never working ATMs? Flight delays? Cancelations at last time? Bad seats? Food? No network or bad connections? No no no.

Other is market part of it. Usually if there's competition in market then companies fear bad service and so they do their job well for fear of losing customers. But Modi govt since it arrived has been favoring just select corporate houses killing competitors one by one. Imagine the number of mobile operators during Congress time? They're all gone. This govt even killed BSNL to favor jio. Same story with airlines and with banks in name of nationalization they've killed many local banks like Syndicate bank etc.

This is same Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan one nation one everything policy because less diversity makes for easy control. India's strength lies in more diversity. Less diverse we get, more prone to all kinds of anti-people attacks.

Clock has long ticked for meaningful reset. But as Arundhati Roy said, 'We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.'

There's still hope provided we agree that there's a problem, ailment, disease to cure.

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Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.

The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.

Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.