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Sunday, May 13, 2007

Magar ün ghamoñ ko maeñ kyaa kahooñ jo khüshee ke naam se aae haeñ?

The images on our TV screens yesterday continue to haunt me. The artificiality and the ridiculousness of the Islamabad event where it was not even considered necessary to disguise the fact that people had been brought in from far and wide, often with little or no choice of refusal to participate when commanded by their chaudhries. Karachi has seen violence before. Worse, too. But the inaction of the police was a phenomenon never seen on such a large scale - now made visible, thanks to the power of the new media. Aaj TV under siege, viewed by people around the world, appealing for help to "everyone except the President and the PM" ... and the total lack of response, except for the remarkably stupid comments of some of the higher ups. Faintly reminiscent of the yet-to-be-solved mystery (hahaha!) of the recent police attack on Geo, na? As you can see from this BBC website image, this made our beloved President very, very sad:

I think the protestors and the CJ supporters (many riding the bandwagon, obviously, for their own political gains) goofed. Their strategy should have been to call off the visit and the jubilee celebrations at the last minute, postponing them for 3-4 days later. That would have pulled the rug from under the feet of the government and its supporters. It would have been impossible for them to rechedule their large events at such short notice ... or to postpone them to coincide with the CJs changed visit date without exposing their designs.
Things don't bode well ... not just for Karachi but for the country. We may be in for a long hot summer again. Here's what Physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy has to say. [This is a PDF I have just received.]

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

13 May, 2007 20:17

 
Blogger Sidhusaaheb said...

Sadly, violence seems to have become an integral part of politics in South Asia.

14 May, 2007 01:54

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The essential thing is that people, especially the political players, should realize that with the advent of technology, and the freedom of media has woken up the public to their right of choice. The public no longer has to count on one state-run propagandist television station and a handful of akhbaars for information.

The trouble makers cannot rely on getting away scot-free. Even if they are not held accountable by a court of law, they never ever can be acquitted from the court of the people.

14 May, 2007 04:42

 

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