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

[Inder Salim]

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000927217088&ref=ts#!/profile.php?id=100000137477571

plz read the bio of this gentle man on FB

interesting
thanks Mr. Peetha ji



On 9/14/10, Pheeta Ram <pheeta.ram at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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> >
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