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

[Bipin Trivedi]

Dear Pheeta,

Neither I am elite nor fallen in  news trap. I am middle class man. 

At first place I have objected about the Salman statement timings since he
has his selfish motto behind this statement and Salman is also elite only.
Even this news/statement got hype because the celebrity and elite like
Salman spoke it, don’t you think so? 

Is it wrong to become wealthy or elite? Why you against the elite? To become
rich is everyone dream is it not yours? Man becomes rich with our own
intellectual hard work along with destiny.

Thanks
Bipin Trivedi



From: Pheeta Ram [mailto:pheeta.ram at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 11:45 AM
To: Bipin Trivedi
Cc: sarai-list
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] "Salman tells Pak channel, we overreacted to
26/11 because THE ELITE WERE HIT"

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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