Jyotsana wrote: I have in debate utterly destroyed several human rights / progressive / oppressed / religion-caste blowhards through my this one publication. It also helps that I have spent weeks scouring through the archives, and have read the likes of Dhananjay Keer.

Congratulations, Jyotsana. I wish you every success in high school debate. You may wish to focus a bit more on reading compehension, as that gets more important in 11th grade. Good Luck!

as for my shakha, my zulu king was generally considered more than up to par. uSuthu! uSuthu!

it’s only january 3. maybe you shouldn’t waste the dreaded shakha suckerpunch on something so banal as my observations. i tried very hard to feel wounded, lest your barb be wasted, but as fate would have it, i was watching a movie and bent to pet the dog and it sadly missed its mark and fell into the dog’s bowl. fear not, for for fear of upsetting the dog i quickly fished it out and hereby return it to you, rinsed and dried and all ready to be launched again. there’s a full year ahead of spot-the-shakha-dweller , so be judicious with it lest it loses it sting and zing. Next time I might actually say something worthy of your slurs, so save it for then:)

Nambiar

if i’m not mistaken, it was dr. anonymous in #3 who first mentioned india in relation to this post, and he specifically linked india to affecting bangladesh (hindutva influencing islamism), not the other way round.

What I actually said in #3:

“On Islamism – the best way to reduce islamism in Bangladesh is probably to reduce Hindutva and Islamism / anti-Indian sentiment in India and Pakistan respectively, and more broadly the global idiocy that countries like the U.S. and Israel and “leaders” like Ahmedinejad pursue.”

I leave it to others to figure out how you and other commenters got from what I said (elaborated in #14 as well) to what you thought I said. Presumably either one-track minds or a complete lack of reading comprehension. Was your shakha not up to par?

I don’t know much about the complicity of Congress leaders in the anti-Sikh violence. As I said I was a little kid and was more interested in the prudential world cup cricket win than anything else.

Generally, I have seen that anti social elements take advantage of similar situations to plunder the various shops and indulge in looting. Police can goto only so many places. I don’t think Rajiv Gandhi is in anyway involved with the violence.

I don’t know I’d call that Sikh blood lusting Indian populace. I was a small kid and 84 elections was the first one I vaguely remember. It was the death of Indira Gandhi that made the headlines and I came to know about Sikh massacres only years later. Remember that was when the only outlet was the state controlled Doordarshan and I don’t remember much on the main newspapers either.

Moreover, I can guess people were afraid of the various bombs that exploded in Delhi buses and selective killings of Hindus in Punjab by the Khalistanis.

It is the name that was used by the Brits. Ikram is using it to reinforce the India that we have now is the same as British imperialist India. BTW, IAS officers take orders from local politicians. and typically they learn the local language of the state where they serve in order to advance in their careers. It is funny to hear some of them speak in Tamil in the news channels. But I appreciate their efforts.

Ambedkar is awesome and I have read his piece on Pakistan / Partition of India and admire his foresight. I believe this was written in the early 40s and when the decisions were made on partition, I think his advise was followed (by asking the non-Muslim representatives of Bengal and Punjab to vote for partition of the provinces). If only there was a peaceful population transfer as in the case of Turkey/Greece I guess things would not have turned this bitter.