Politics of Naxalism: Open letter to Prime Minister
May 28th, 2010
Mr Prime Minister,
My name is Sush Jaitly, a citizen of your country, and I’m literally weeping at this point of time. In my hands is a picture of a small girl Shirin whose lifeless body is being pulled out of the train wreckage of Jnaneshwari Express in Sardhia. Her twin sister Shamim too is dead and so are her parents. This was a first train ride for the seven year olds, and the last. I only hope that the kids did not suffer too much before they died. Sir, if this is not heart wrenching nothing can be?
Sir, do you know who the murderers of these kids are? No, it’s not just the Maoists. In my opinion these kids have been killed by you along with P Chidamabaram, Mamata Bannerjee, Digvijay Singh, Arundhati Roy, Budhadeb Bhattacharya, Lalu Yadav and all those politicians who care two hoots for our lives. Forgive my saying this but I don’t think you are concerned much about national security. All you are bothered about is political security, at least more than national security. And your own chair in the corridors of power.
In my opinion, my dear sir, the blood of Shirin and Shamim are on your hands directly. And that of 98 others who have died in this incident so far. And that of 76 policemen and 21 other innocents who were killed in Dantewada. BLUE MURDER!!! This is all this is.
Today, please forgive me again for being so blunt, I’m ashamed of your being my Prime Minister. I’m ashamed that we have people like Mamta Bannerjee as our cabinet minister who does not deserve to be entrusted with 100 bucks leave aside lives of millions of passengers. It is during her watch that railways have been directly attacked more than 65 times in just the last year besides other accidents not attributable to Maoists. And you continue to endorse her, all because of political security.
Did you notice that she did not shred an iota of a tear when she visited the site of accident for these two innocent kids and the 98 others who perished in this horrific act? Also, do you know why railways have been targeted by Maoists so frequently? Sir, it’s because Mamata Bannerjee has been their die hard supporter till not so distant past and this is their way of getting back at her. Sir, if you can read the signs you’ll see that Mamata Bannerjee cannot be allowed to continue as Minister of Railways. And in her heart of hearts she herself is more keen to sit on Budhadeb Bhattacharya’s chair than in your cabinet. She has got so obsessed with it that she cannot see anything beyond elections in West Bengal. I’ll request you to please change her and for all I care put an absolute novice in her place. Just ensure that the person cares for this country more than the state where he or she was born in.
Sir, I wish to bring to your notice that even after more than 36 hours of the incident there are still so many bodies which have not been extricated from the mangled mess. Where is your disaster management team? Or does this count as a disaster at all? If it does, what happened to all the big policies on disaster management? Where are the relief vans of railways which were supposed to be placed at every 100 kms? Why haven’t civil contractors been pressed into service simultaneously alongwith the govt machinery? Why did everyone wait for the day break to realize what had happened? Sir, if the administration had been fast enough who knows, we could’ve saved so many lives? And then to believe that you personally are the Chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority. I’m sorry sir, but you’ve failed, miserably I might add.
And lastly sir, If you count the number of people who have died in just the last three incidents, two in Dantewada and this one, you’ll see that the number of innocents killed by Maoists are more than the number of people killed in Mumbai on 26/11. You do not have to be a scientist to see that Maoists are a bigger threat than Islamic terrorists. If that be so how can our response be any different towards Islamic fundamentalists and Maoists? Both these are terrorist groups who do not care about the lives of innocent citizens of this country. If you still cannot make up your mind I wonder when will you? How many more innocent lives will it take for you to understand that you need to act. And act now. If there are people within the Congress or the UPA II who are sympathetic towards them why don’t you come out and expose them? If you don’t it clearly shows that for you political security is more important than national security.
And sir, I’m still crying. May be I’m an emotional fool or whatever but if you cannot shed a tear or two for those two innocent girls and 98 others I wonder what kind of a human being are you. Forgive me for my harsh words but that’s a call coming straight out of my heart.
May you have the courage to deal with this menace effectively.
Yours Sincerely
Sush Jaitly
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May 29th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
Very touching indeed. Every Indian's heart would go out for those two small girls and the others who have been killed because our PM is a weak man. I'd go the extent of saying that he should resign from his job and let anyone with more gumption take over. If he has a problem he can call me or even Sush for that matter.
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May 29th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
I share your feelings and concern in all its entirety.
But whom do we address our vows to?
PM who is just a puppet in the political drama being enacted? He has long lost his sense of identity.
Other politicians mentioned are not even worth mentioning.Most of them are bigger threat to the Indian people than the Naxals themselves.
Arundhati Roy,a victim of her past;she could contribute to the scientific community if she subjects herself to some eminent psycho-analyst....results would be revealing to say the least.
That leaves a vacuum...an ideal environment where injustice thrives.
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May 29th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
I do have same feeling and concern Sush Jaitly Mam. very touching blog, I indeed insure you the whole country have the same feeling as you. But fail to show our feelings. I don't think PM is weak as my frnds have written. But indeed there are lots of politician in his cabinet who is responsible for these blood shed for their own local benefits or dirty vote politics. Now media should ask Lalu if these all 100 peoples were police spy?
I do think we should start our protests and keep people aware of this kind of threats.
Indeed your this blog will be helpful.
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May 30th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
The words have come out straight from your heart and it is very touching...
Guess the time has come for the PM to act... he can no longer remain honest but weak...
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May 30th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
@Dinesh, may be by pulling at his heart strings the way we are, we may be able to make him realize that THE BUCK STOPS WITH HIM, and he needs to put everything at stake the way he did for the nuclear deal in 2008. Let's hope so.
@Md Khalid, if you see I've not really called him weak anywhere although some have. While I have half a mind of doing so, I'd still like to see what he does now to fight the Maoists before I label him as weak.
@Happy Kitten, let me tell you that when I wrote those words I really had tears in my eyes. And like I said, if he doesn't act now he'll lose whatever little respect people have for him. I really hope that BJP starts asking for his resignation if he fails to live upto the challenge.
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May 30th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Sush, very emotional indeed and righfully so. It is an ongoing grief the nation is pained with. Not everyone of course. Mamta had no clue what she was blabbering on TV when questioned about the incident. She was in her usual indistinct monotone blurting out noises no sane mind could decipher. And hardly any angst visible on her face - what a specimen! I almost thought she would own responsibility and offer to resign (I honestly wished so), but nay!
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It is a startling exposure of an absolutely ineffective Union Government more worried about salvaging its existence than being of any purpose to the Country. I agree with all the observations and would go further ahead to say that all the counter-productive policies, rampant in-fighting, insensitive foresight, dynastic overdependence, carte blanche rule and other infinite etceteras will, sadly, bring down to ash, a economically emerging country that had withstood the international economic meltdown bravely.
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An insipid PM governed by a multifarious cabinet each having their own dogmatic principles and above all, controlled carte blanche by dynastic hankerings will never proffer with vital and imminent recourse the nation is keenly waiting for to resolve its umpteen issues!
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Yet, with that glimmer of hope, I hope your letter finds its way to the PM's desk and awaken him from his political slumber!
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Comments on : Sush, very emotional indeed an....
Comment By : Sush
May 31, 2010
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May 30th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
Sush, don't worry, PM will invite Maoists for talks, agree to all their demands if possible (for votes of course)and naxals will enter politics. Who knows kishenji may even become chief minister of WB or Chattisgarh!
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June 2nd, 2010 at 11:09 am
@Sush
My heart goes out to your tears and today I feel sad and exhausted. I've always felt that these guerrillas have a personal motive behind their attacks so that Govt. pays attention to their traumatic life. However this is the time when I've been able to see out of the box and believe you me my observations would certainly be remarkable (if you agree).
> From where these 'reds' get their ammo from? Is AK47 or grenades or detonators freely available to all citizens in our country?
> Satellites can readily detect their (maoists or terrorists) presence in the effected areas might that be Chattisgarh or PoK. But Govt. ain't acting similarly. Are they (Govt.) paranoid?
> If the resolution lie in a full fledged war then whats stopping them? On the other hand, if the Govt. can resolve the dispute amicably then whats steps they have planned? They do have planned - NO ACTION AT ALL! Veerappan was killed in a flash when he was at large for decades altogether. Such sudden actions casts heavy doubt on the action plans of the Govt.
> Anyone who is aggrieved in this country has to take a violent step before he can be heard. Why? Congress is banking votes heavily on the name of Mahatma Gandhi but ironically the Govt. itself does not understand the language of peace? Remember the doctors fighting against 'reservation' and the incidence of gujjar agitation?
It seems that its only a politically motivated storm in which the Govt. want to divert the attention of the common man towards such nuisance and want to suppress scams like 2G spectrum etc.
What an abhorrent shame !!
//Peace..
/monaul
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