[Reader-list] "Salman tells Pak channel, we overreacted to 26/11 because THE ELITE WERE HIT"

[Pheeta Ram]

Dear Tapas

As far as i know, 'majma' is a hindustani word for a gathering of people. I
was using it more in the colloquial sense of 'tamashbeen' which, i think,
means bunch of people who gather to watch some curious spectacle or event or
for the audience of a performance of 'tamasha' [a Marathi folk art form].
Some such scene prevailed in the vicinity of the Taj on that evening of 20th
November. You could easily read the horror on the faces of Mumbai elites
some of whom were visiting in their imported cars. You could contrast it
with the jubilation on the faces of street vendors. This jubilation was
cathartic, i believe.

Dear Bipin

After having read your response,i believe its 'either'-'or'-'both' situation
with respect to you: either, you are an elite yourself (self-imagined or
otherwise) or, you have fallen in the very trap that the Delhi times has
laid out for innocent souls to fall in; or both are applicable in your case.
That is the very reason i had underscored the word "overreacted" in my post
particularly. The editor at the TOI office, who gave such a clever turn to
the headline by inserting this word [though 'reacted' is there in Salman's
statement] should be specially awarded the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in
Journalism award for being a pastmaster in propaganda. Also, let us not
overlook the fact that the word "overreacted" has overbearing family
resemblances with "over-hyped." There is no comparing  the loss of human
life. The idea is to hammer a point to the home of elites: "heads must begin
to roll" [to use a phrase much in currency during that time in the News
Channel studios] because the pleasure palaces of the elites had come under
attack for the first time. Those who have a taste for headlines will
remember this international post 9/11 headline: TERROR COMES HOME. This is
one of the best headlines i have ever come across. Just imagine its impact
in the hearts of the residents of the first-world who consume 250 times more
energy than their third-world counterparts and pollute the earth 250 times
more. In their heart of hearts they knew that all their pleasures were being
paid for with the blood of the third-world poor. That was the moment of
reckoning: that cold touch of the 'real'.

The question of "Why now?" is no question at all. We are quite used to such
gimmicks by now and needn't trouble binaries uselessly. I am just trying to
look at the entire issue through the lens of class and trying to refuse the
temptation of hairsplitting (may be, such fineries are beyond my
constitution). The people who do our share of thinking for us are fully
justified when they fail to raise such issues; can you lift yourself by your
shoelaces? No, we know. The entire struggle of the elite ruling class is
against getting eaten up by itself, such is the nature of its parasitism.
Don't forget: our stomach begins consuming itself when it doesn't get any
supply of food. The entire effort of the popular entertainment run by the
elites is to sublimate, channelise and diffuse the 'class hatred' simmering
in the hearts of the poor and the dispossessed because it is this class
hatred which constitutes the stuff revolutions are made of!

Best

Pheeta


On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 10:43 PM, Bipin Trivedi <aliens at dataone.in> wrote:

> Just read Salman's statement given in the Delhi Times itself: " Just
> because this time the Taj, the Oberoi were under attack, everybody stood up.
> We've had bomb blasts in trains, in small towns, but no one reacted, no one
> stood up.... Why now? The people who suddenly woke up were speaking up
> because they were scared for their own lives."
>
> Why Salman suddenly giving such statement now after about 2 years and that
> also to Pak journalist and this also before he want to release his picture
> Dabang in the Pak? He just want the publicity for his movie nothing else and
> there is no any honest intention towards any earlier terrorist victim not
> getting hype compared to this attack.
>
> It is absolutely wrong to say that 26/11 attack was hyped much more since
> the Taj/Oberoi hotel attacked. It was hyped much more since terrorist attack
> was of high impact. It was lasted for more than 48 hours, much more people
> were died/injured compared to other attacks like simple bomb blasts of
> towns/cities where casualties was negligible or rather nil. Earlier Mumbai
> train bomb blasts also was hyped much more due to their more casualties
> where lower class people where victim. Similarly, parliament attack and red
> fort attack, where casualties were not there but got hyped due to their
> stature. During the 26/11 attack media covered CST station news also and
> showing repeatedly. One should not forget that CST station coverage of CCTV
> was the key evidence in the court and this was shown by all the media
> regularly.
>
> Any unknown place and not 5 star hotels where 26/11 like attack took place
> lasted for this much time and impact would have got this much hype only. So,
> the analysis itself is wrong that it got hyped due to 5 star hotel were
> attacked.
>
> Thanks
> Bipin Trivedi
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: reader-list-bounces at sarai.net [mailto:reader-list-bounces at sarai.net]
> On Behalf Of Pheeta Ram
> Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 8:34 AM
> To: sarai list
> Subject: [Reader-list] "Salman tells Pak channel, we overreacted to 26/11
> because THE ELITE WERE HIT"
>
> It made for an interesting headline on the front-page of the Delhi Times,
> but spot-on! I happened to be in front of the Taj hotel in Mumbai on the
> 29th of November, marveling at the majma that had assembled in front of the
> hotel that had been under attack two days before. Though the insides of the
> hotel had been put off limits for the general public, during the day, i
> came
> to know of the next day, a filmmaker and Deshmukh and co. had visited it on
> a broad daylight jaunt. Terminally allergic to khandani elites and
> elites-in-the-making, i decided to find out what the street hawkers had to
> say about the Taj and all the tamasha around it: "Pehli baar amir log mare
> hain. Tabhi itna halla ho raha hai. CST wallon ko koi nahin pooch raha hai.
> Sab photo waale yahin par aaye hain.... Jo bhai Commando sab Taj walon ko
> bacha kar gaye hain, wo kabhi yahan ki chaye [tea] bhi nahi kharid
> sakenge."
> I was surprised to hear from a fellow brother what i was feeling then but
> unable to articulate. Very surprisingly, despite being an elite himself,
> Salman Khan voiced similar sentiments yesterday which have made headlines
> today in many newspapers.
>
> My making the Delhi Times headline the subject of this mail has one another
> purpose: to highlight an observation regarding the 'politics' of the Times
> of India. Everybody knows that TOI is the front organ of the ruling
> establishment, so my observation shouldn't strike as a surprise to anybody.
> Just read Salman's statement given in the Delhi Times itself: " Just
> because
> this time the Taj, the Oberoi were under attack, everybody stood up. We've
> had bomb blasts in trains, in small towns, but no one reacted, no one stood
> up.... Why now? The people who suddenly woke up were speaking up because
> they were scared for their own lives." Now compare this with the text of
> the
> headline; i would like to underscore the word "overreacted" particularly,
> which to my mind, makes all the difference. I don't think i need to labour
> more to make my point.
>
> After the Mumbai attacks, suddenly a hotel was made up as the 'national
> icon'. I won't be surprised if the coming generations would identify the
> Taj
> hotel as one of the wonders of the world instead of the Taj at Agra. Some
> time back a young aspiring researcher, with the alacrity and politeness so
> characteristic of her tribe, had reacted to my untimely suggestion (that
> the
> issue of "Dilli vs Delhi" was primarily a class issue and that there was
> curious politics behind the demise of the concept of 'class' ) saying that
> it was impossible to class-ify society in neat categories any longer as
> things had become very complicated and hence uselessness of the concept of
> 'class'. I believe, it is the 'intent' and not the 'nature' of things
> around
> us that makes the difference. Is there something that is goading us to
> reach
> the conclusion? Which class do we belong to now? Which class we used to
> belong to before? Which class my parents and their parents before them
> belonged to? Which class do i identify with? Which class do i aspire to
> identify with? These are some of the questions which strike me when i begin
> to rethink about the issue of class-ification of contemporary society and
> of
> the people who overly stress of its very impossibility.  (My guru used to
> tell me: "ki bhayya pheeta, do hi class hoti hain, ek jo roti ke waaste
> kamaati hai aur doosri wo jo majaa marne ke liye munaafe ki roti chakhti
> hai.")
>
> People who are intent on reaching a conclusion, on making a 'just' point
> (which the maze of contemporary category confusions render impossible)
> would
> strategically deploy these categories rather than treating them as junk
> from
> a forgettable past. Surprisingly, the concept of 'strategic essentialism'
> comes from one of the elites of the academia itself, the tribe i intend to
> criti-size ( and not critique). It is a point not very uncommonly
> observable, that people who run their shop in the academia, must always
> employ themselves in the business of deferring just conclusions. Anything,
> any interpretation, that would defer the 'judgement day' is welcome. It is
> the 'aesthetics of deferral' that distinguishes the world of an academic
> from the world of an activist  which is solely defined by the 'ethics of
> arrival'. It also explains the phenomenon of a sudden proliferation in new
> scintillating categories in prodigious numbers in the later half of the
> 20th
> century. So one fine evening, if you, by your god's grace, find yourself in
> a seminar hall full of creatures from academia, just try to grab their
> 'conclusions' and the points that drive them to them. Savour each and every
> turn of phrase, every other word that at once remind you of your sumo
> dictionary, every other sentence that slips from your grasp like a jelly
> fish. The fun would not be in discovering the Emperor naked but in finding
> that "is hamaam main to tamaam nange hain!"
>
> My sincere apologies for hastening the con-clusion.
>
> Pheeta Ram
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