|
|
Random Thoughts
Lebanon
A Panchtantra for Foolish Indians
by
Gaurang Bhatt, MD
An ancient
Indian king had three foolish sons and was worried that his three
princes would destroy his kingdom. He announced a huge prize to any
teacher who could educate his idiotic princes. A pundit took up the
challenge and the stories he told the princes and the morals thereof are
known as the Panchtantra. Lebanon should serve the purpose for our
current retarded leaders and ignorant compatriots.
After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WW1, it was dismantled and the
Caliphate was abolished. Kemal Ataturk took over the government and
Turkey became a republic. The Ottoman province of Syria was under French
mandate. Portions around the Mediterranean coast had a large number of
Christians from the early days and as a result of the Crusader
conquests. When France gave sort of independence to the region, it
divided the area into Syria and Lebanon, the latter with nearly 50%
Maronite Christians. France did not want the Christians to be under
majority Muslim rule and set up the Lebanese government in such a way as
to be dominated by the Christians even though they were a minority.
The parallel
to the British instigating and ultimately engineering the division of
the Raj into India and the two Pakistans is striking. The Muslim
population of Lebanon increased due to higher birthrates and the
Christian population decreased due to migration to Europe and America
but the control of power remained in the hands of the shrinking minority
of Christians. The covert divisive tactics of the West ultimately led to
a civil war and the ruin of Lebanon. Once again the parallel to the
Punjabi domination of the joint Pakistan and the later secession of
Bangladesh due to the Pakistani civil war comes to mind.
India has already seen the Khalistan insurgency from a least expected
source. Hinduism has literally midwifed and supported Sikhism from its
very inception. Currently we are seeing support for terrorists from
Indian Muslims and secession movements by Christian minorities in the
Northeastern states converted to Christianity under the Raj or
post-independence. Freedom of religion is enshrined in the constitutions
of democratic nations but it is a luxury that a poor nation can ill
afford. When there is no freedom from basic wants in a poor country,
freedom of religion is used by richer religious nations to bribe the
poor to change their religion. The rice Christians and Muslims, to
maintain their self-respect then show more devoutness and piety and
influence their children to outdo them. In a generation or two the
country is left with populations more devoted to their religion than
their nation. We cannot have missionary Christians and Western NGOs
serving as spearheads for conversion by bribery with the fanatic idiot
converts of the second generation ascribing earthquakes and other
natural calamities to being the punishment of the angry true Christian
god of the wrong and heretic nature of Hinduism.
It was not divine logic or angelic communication that made Mahavira and
Buddha to retain the doctrine of Karma, Mohammed to retain the primacy
of the Kaba, circumcision, not eating pork and menstrual taboos, Christ
to claim to be the Messiah or Sikhism to retain Ikonkar and have
five pillars. The first two were trying to convert Hindus, the third and
fourth to convert pagans and Jews, and the fifth to convert Hindus and
Muslims to their respective new religions. To move their trains from the
old track to the new one, they needed some connecting common siding to
achieve their desired goal. Islam with its concept of the Ummah
trumping nationhood often ends up seeding the state with fifth
columnists. A classic but foolish example of that is the agitation of
Indian Muslims in the Khilafat movement after WW1 when the Turkish
Caliphate was abolished. These Muslims far from rising up against
British rule in their native India, where they lived as discriminated
second class citizens, indulged in violent protests against the
abolishment of the Turkish monarchy by a Muslim Turk.
Even after Lebanon recovered somewhat from the civil war, the west
continued to deepen the divide between Muslims and Christians and the
recall of the Lebanese ambassador to America last week for criticizing
the Israeli invasion, blockade and bombardment, by the pro-western
current Lebanese government shows the disunity in that country. The
kid-napping of Israeli soldiers by Hizbollah and Hamas deserves
condemnation but the biased western press does not inform the ignorant
world that Israel is holding some Lebanese prisoners and thousands of
Palestinian prisoners illegally as well. The initial Israeli attacks on
Lebanon were met with condemnation of Hizbollah instead of a united
front condemning the over-reaction of massive Israeli attacks on the
civilian population and infrastructure like the airport, power
generation, water and sewage plants. It is only after an appeal to the
UN Security Council for Israeli condemnation was blocked by an American
veto, that the western puppet government of Lebanon woke up to reality.
America has
used its veto to support Israel at the UN all the time and continues to
arm Israel to kill Palestinian civilians and occupy and usurp their
land. US or international newspapers rarely if ever report that Israeli
Arabs and Palestinians have different rights for the use of highways,
water and other civic facilities. It may take half a day for a
Palestinian to drive a few miles through Israeli checkpoints and thus be
denied emergency medical services or the ability to commute to work.
Terrorism is most often unjust and an atrocity carried out by the weak
as a desperate means while war is the same thing used by the strong and
most often equally unjust and often a greater atrocity. One has to
strongly condemn terrorism in any form but its antidote is not
propaganda but removing the causes thereof.
The lesson for India is that a hyper-power which arms our neighboring
enemy and gives it massive financial support can’t be a true friend or
ally. We must respect its power and accommodate to it using realpolitik
but not gullibly believe its statements and definitely not act to
jeopardize our national interests as some of our elected leaders and
bureaucrats are doing for personal greed, fame or bribes.
Our ministers and secretaries are outright liars when they tell us that
we have to accept the US congressional modifications to the civil
nuclear agreement. Their argument is that America is our largest trading
partner, a big source of foreign investment and technology and the lone
superpower. China’s trade with the US is ten times bigger and it
receives equally large dollops of technology and investment but one
doesn’t see China kowtowing and letting America dictate its foreign
policy, international relationships or taking permission before a
missile launch. China did not agree to any such debasing clauses and
restraints in its nuclear agreement with America or the IAEA or with its
uranium supply from Australia. Those who say so privately or in
newspapers are lying through their teeth, just as Bush lied to Manmohan
Singh. The Indian government should have realized or will painfully
realize that America needs Pakistan more than it needs India and is more
afraid of Pakistani nukes being used in terrorist attacks because of the
fanatic suicidal tendencies of its Islamic terrorists, as the Lebanese
government just realized that despite words of support America will
always side with Israel.
The foolish arguments of Arundhati Roy, Praful Bidwai, Pankaj Mishra and
other ignorant but romantic peaceniks and pacifists have received their
demolishing answers in the current Lebanon crisis and Israeli
aggression. These utopian and naive brainwashed individuals with a
craving for western approval, prizes and accolades, who often write more
than they read, and lack knowledge and memory of history, with their
cries for unilateral nuclear and other disarmament would put India at
the mercy of any powerful aggressor. They have forgotten what happened
to India in the 1962 aggression of China and the recent toll on our
Jawans at Kargil.
As Chomsky
has stated nation states are not moral agents. Realpolitik and national
interests dictate foreign policy. It is important to understand that
both America and Israel from birth to present have behaved despicably
towards other human beings and many nations. Those interested may read
my seven part history of the US under Random Thoughts at this site and
the many articles on Israel at
www.zmag.org and books
of Noam Chomsky, Norman Solomon and Howard Zinn. All three are Jewish
and not some rabid Muslim conspiracy theorists. There is much good that
we enjoy due to the efforts, integrity and genius of some Jews, so this
is not an anti-Semitic diatribe. India’s attempts to appease the Islamic
nations have not altered their pro-Pakistani policies and in the radical
Islamists concept of Ummah trumping nationhood. India has to align with
USA and Israel because they are the enemies of our enemies and they have
arms, technology and finances, but not be subjugated to a subservient
status. As the saying goes, "If one has to sup with the devil, one
better have and use a long spoon". Mohammed aligned himself with Jews,
Christ gave unto Caesar his due and Dharmaraja lied to Drona when asked
by him if Ashwatthama was dead?
Finally, rather than the convenient and expedient accommodation or lies
of the Congress party, Samajwadi party or the RJD, honest leaders should
make the Indian Muslims understand that India is not joining the Western
war, oppression and exploitation of Islamic countries but simply
ensuring its own survival by alliances dictated by necessity. It wants
to assimilate its own religious minorities and provide them a level
playing field, but in return clearly expects them to have their
allegiance to the nation state and its laws and not some Ummah, Shariah
or Papacy.
July 23,
2006
Top
|
Random Thoughts
The Week of July 23, 2006
Next Ninety Days : What Bush Might Attempt ...
by Rajinder Puri
The Pains of Failed Vigilantism by Col Rahul
K. Bhonsle
Lebanon : A
Panchtantra for Foolish Indians by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
Mumbai 7/11 : A Week Thereafter by Dr.
Subhash Kapila
Bumptious UPA Secularism vs. Jihadic Terrorism
by V. Sundaram
Development for the Common Man by Kusum
Choppra
Monsoon Music by Dr. Prasenjit Maiti
The Necessity of Ambition by TA Ramesh
Raindrops on the Roof Top by VK Joshi
The Perks and Perils of being a stay-at-home
Mom by Garima Gupta
Vastu Interiors and Colors by
Niranjan Babu Bangalore
The Pachyderm Priest by Sujata Iyer
The Heart that Loved by Naghma Masroor
Tortures and Travails of a Retired House-Husband
by C.R. Gopalakrishna
Travel Tit Bits by Kusum Choppra
Advantage
Eurostar by Rajesh Talwar
Hail Mumbai by Naghma Masroor
|
|
