Shetubondhon - Post Roumary Debates with Kaushik Sen - 3

Shetubondhomn- Roumary - Re: A Personal Clarification

Dear Mr. Sen,

It is actually useless to argue with anyone who cares to learn nothing outside his own belief and passion. So I will only point out the factual mistakes in your clarification

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Lakum Di Nukum Waliadin (Unto you, your belief - unto me mine) Sura Al-Kafiroon, The Koran

Yes I do realise your dissapointment in failing to 'educate' me much as you have done so many others on this forum. Please leave me happy and content with what I believe in - will you? To be very specific, I did not initiate this unneccssary argument. And, I was not the one who turned an India-Bangladesh related discussion into a personal attack. Does insulting comments targeted to individuals such as "juvenile delinquent" or "a terrorist" sound the bell, which engendered this exchange of personal nature? Why do we have to resort to such personal attacks, when the discussion is about India-Bangladesh relationship, and we can have genuine differences of opinion and feeling in this regard?

I am not an Indian kid. I am an American physician of Indian origin and an activist against a number of policies of the current government of India specially on environmental issues.

Congratulations - an American Indian, clap, clap, clap, but is'nt this again a classic egg or hen charade, i.e what came first, your American status or your Indian origin? Congratulations again for standing against many curren polices of the Governemnt of India, which ironically does not encourage me to harbor a great deal of trust. My apologies.

I am an avid reader with some understanding of the English language. Your write up did not convey specifically that you were deploring the act (Indian BSF personnel hung like animals on bamboo staves). Your attitude regarding this was at the best unclear if not glorifying.

Thanks for admitting at this stage now that it was 'unclear'. If you had read and reread and tried to understand when I kept repeating 'and then' so many times in the paragraph, you would have probably got a clearer impression. You understand your English as much as I do Mr. Sen, and your response indicates that you were more than slightly unhappy because some readers on the forum were specifically pointing to that one para .... indeed one reader even suggesting that this is exactly what he wanted to say but could not.

I was not in diapers in 1971 (diapers were not around anyway). Assuming that you were around at that time I find it unnecessarey to describe how the spirit of 1971 overwhelmed the common Calcuttans above and beyond all the cruel politics games. It is useless to recall today how we treated the 1971 refugees in Calcutta and how we roamed the streets collecting stuff for them. I am not willing to share those fond memories with hate mongers.

It seems that you were alive and kicking in Calcutta in 1971. Thanks for 'collecting stuff' for refugees in 1971 - and thanks once again for your contribution to the Bangladesh Liberation War. My experience in 1971 was of course to have a better part of a Pakistani bayonet to my right shin, which is still painful and no way a 'fond memory' like yours. It reminds me that a 'shotru' is a 'shotru' and we will have to fight them regardless of which side of history they are convieniantly positioned today. Amee shotru chini mago tumi ghoomao nirbhoiya.

There is no such thing as an 'eternal friend' or an 'eternal enemy'!! In such 'peaceable' times our vigilance is unfortunately higher than many would expect or like.

Again one ruthless act in the past cannot justify another in the present time. Media could and did glorify many acts of atrocities in all nations but knowledgeable people usually can differentiate between propaganda and history. They can also differentiate between patriotism and parochialism.

Two wrongs have never made one right, but what happened in Roumari is no propaganda - it was reality and the sooner you accepted that the better it would be for everybody. The clear message that was sent and should have been sent a long time ago is: 'dont dare tread on Bangladesh'. This ain't Assam or Kashmir brother, and while we would prefer to be 'shanti priyo shanto chhellay' the fact of the matter is the next line is 'tobu shotru elay ostro haatay dhortay jaani'! Was it not Rabindranath Tagore the pacifist that penned them? Please help - my memory fails me! Juvenile delinquent - was he? You know better.

I do not really care how much you hate India as I am sure there are plenty of nuts in India who hate you exactly as much and they will do their best to answer your war cries. I have nothing to do with either you or them. But you are not just juvenile. Juveniles may be silly but not necessary violent and hateful. You are one of those (at least in spirit) who shoot in the schools or blow up buildings just to make a statement.

Thanks Iswar for exonerating me off this 'juvenile delinquency' charge. When I say I hate India, please be reminded that I do not mean the 'people of India' but the ruling elite in Delhi, who have been nothing more than Brahmin supremacist, a God-ordained class out to vitiate the atmosphere, essentially the fragile communal fabric that many like us are trying desperately to protect. The fallout to all of that is the kind of personal exchange that the two of us are having at this given moment (which I did not initiate, you did) - however if push comes to shove, Bangladesh will do more than blow up schools and buildings and I do not have to be the one to lead the charge of the light brigade.

When you have hundreds of civilain getting shot and killed at the border every year, with schools being shot up by Indian BSF and women getting raped and NONE OF THAT GETTING REPORTED IN THE INDIAN MEDIA, do you really expect only 'goodness' from 'likes of us'? If I am being silly - some are being naive.

And part of the immense problem with India is the fact that your media - (and that includes American Indians!) will not let Bangladesh exist with its head held high in respect and honour. Thirty years is actually a long time to live with the 'fundamentalist theocracy' propaganda that the Indian media employs to ensure that Bangladesh is not taken seriously by the nations of the world.

Jesus wanted the simplicity and purity of children, not your kind of stuff. Your attitude is neither simple or pure, it only reflects the profound identity crisis and attention craving that is evident in the visceral depth of your anti-Indian feelings. I wonder whether you heard about someone called Peter Pan.

Peter Pan ? That sounds intersting. If you feel my attitude is not pure, then my sincerest apologies and I leave it entirely to your profound gyaan to let us 'impure' (read converted nomoshudros) lot know how to act 'pure and simple', complete with the if and buts and do's and dont's. I'll ofcourse thank you immensely for your patronisation.

Simplicity and purity - should not be read as STUPIDITY.