The Army cancels New Year celebrations for death of the Rape Victim

I had flown in from Singapore a few days back to be with my family and also celebrate the New Year at the prestigious United Services Club, right on the sea front at Colaba, lands end in Mumbai. My thoughts were however muddled and I felt it was not proper to dance and drink when the nation was emotionally charged up with the killing and earlier rape of the 23 year old girl in Delhi. The girl had been raped in a moving bus and severely assaulted and though taken to Singapore for treatment died because of organ failure. It is really sad. The body on return to Delhi from Singapore was received by the Prime Minister himself and her cremation was attended by the Delhi Chief Minister. Sonia Gandhi the Congress party leader cancelled all New Year celebrations.

The Army Chief of Staff General Bikram Singh sensing the mood in the army and the people issued instructions to nearly 100 army clubs in India to cancel New Year celebrations as a mark of respect to the departed brave heart. Accordingly early on 31st December, Army Headquarters issued instructions to all concerned clubs and institutes to cancel New Year celebrations. This is much appreciated among the officer cadre who cannot be insulated from the emotions of the Indian nation. Frankly I am greatly relieved, as I never wanted to sing and drink on this sombre occasion when a young girl has been done to death in a most heinous manner after being gang raped. Her death has galvanized the Indian nation and only some good will comes out of it. Thus the US club and the Army Officers Institute have cancelled New Year celebrations.

Cricket in Bikinis can bring in Money

Many people have commented that money is not there in women's cricket.This is a fact and something needs to be done about it. Spectators when they come to watch any match want to see a spectacle and by the look of things women dressed as men were a drab affair. So the cricket boards have to do something revolutionary to attract the crowds. The only way is to let women play as women. By this I mean the quality of a woman as a thing of beauty and joy needs to be fostered. Nobody wants to see women dressed as men. People want women as they are, lovely and enticing.

The best way is to change the attire of the women. Throw those pants and shirts away and let women play cricket in what they look best in hot pants and bikinis. After all in beach volley ball women come in bikins and play. Why not cricket.? The moment you have women in Bikinis and hot pants and play the game as women, the crowds will come in and once the crowds come in the sponsors will follow and money will come into the game.

America has always lived with Violent Crime like Rape and Murder

The recent killings in a Connecticut school are very sad. The killer a young lad went berserk and used a rifle to spray bullets killing nearly 30 Americans including 20 children. It is really sad that the young in America are not secure had their life snuffed out as society could not guarantee them a life to cherish. But America is home to endemic violence ever since people can remember. Sex is comparatively easy in America , yet the largest number of rapes of women and girls anywhere in the world take place in America. One can read that in the fifties of the last century a chap called Caryl Chessman went around with a gun and raped a dozen women. He was sent to the gas chamber. This year almost 12000 murders or homicidal deaths are reported in the USA and all of them were with guns.

( Chessman) Even in the thirties of the last century organized crime appeared on the scene with the famous Al Capone running Chicago has his fiefdom. He was arrested and sent to jail where he died. Not for crimes he had committed but on some tax problems.

(Black rapists) Thus violence in America is ingrained into the psyche of the American people. One has only to go to Harlem and see that the crime graph there is more than that of a small nation. One aspect does stand out that the Black man is more prone to violence and , killings and rape. How will anybody control that ?

Can the Second Amendment be Repealed ?

The recent killings of young toddlers at a school in Connecticut has ignited a debate in America whether the second amendment should be repealed. There are a few people clamoring for stricter gun laws so hand guns and rifles can be controlled. I am afraid all this sounds pretty OK but my take on this is different. Firstly I don't think the second amendment which is sacrosanct in the USA will ever be repealed.The reason is simple, the NRA and a vast number of Americans feel that owning guns is a good thing and secondly the ownership of guns is so ingrained in the psyche of the American people that it is part of their life like the automobile.

The second amendment is over 200 years old and at that time it was felt that it would be a good idea to have a controlled militia. By controlled they meant that the concerned American must be trained. One must also bear in mind that there are over 75 million guns in the USA and one can surmise that any attempt to throw this vast number of guns into the dustbin and bring in a regime like in Chin where even owning an air gun is a crime is well nigh impossible in America. The genie has come out of the bottle never to go back again.

The weapon that perhaps may be subject to control is the self loading automatic rifle. This weapon is the favorite of killers and is a military weapon. But to control even this weapon is not easy. One point must be accepted that out of over 12000 killings in USA this year less than 400 were with riffles.

Startling Facts : Mohammed Ali Jinnah was Born a Hindu

Jinnah and force of circumstances  created Pakistan. He was also a Muslim who propounded the two nation theory that saw India being carved into two states and a Muslim majority state Pakistan being created with two limbs West and East Pakistan. Both wings were separated by 1500 miles of Indian territory and was thus a artificial creation. In due course of time Jinnah's two nation theory fell apart and East Pakistan broke away from the mother country. Jinnah would be turning in his grace at this turn of events.   However Jinnah for all his communal rhetoric had deep Hindu roots.

He was like Gandhi from Saurashtra. Actually he was just a second generation Muslim as his father Punjalal Thakur converted to Islam and gave his 4 sons Muslim names. Jinnah’s grandfather Premjibhai was a Hindu from the Lohana community. He had been ostracized from the Lohana community as he had taken to the trade of selling and distributing Fish which the vegetarian Lohana community could not stomach. this was like a red rag to a bull and he looked for a way out.

Punjalal (Jinnah’s Father) converted to Islam as he could not stand the insult to his father by the Hindu Lohana community which had not only ostracized him, but refused to accept him back even when he gave up trading in Fish and pleaded to be taken back. This unforgiving attitude had its repercussions and Jinnah’s father converted to Islam and took the name Jinn. Mohammed Ali, when he grew up adopted the name Jinnah and has thus come to be popularly known as Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Thus Jinnah was a Gujarati from Saurashtra like Gandhi and was born a Hindu.

Most Muslims are unaware of this aspect of Jinnah. The fact that he was a born a Hindu rankles the Muslims. Perhaps that is one reason he became a rabid communalist  and brought out the 2 nation theory. He was however not interested in Muslims and in case Gandhi and Nehru had allowed him to be Prime minister of India , there would have been no Pakistan. All this is clearly brought out in " The last days of the British Raj" by Leonard Mosley and " freedom at midnight"

Sikhs are no Longer Joining the Indian Army en Masse

The Sikhs have a long association with the army in India. After the Anglo-Sikh wars(1845-49)and the subsequent annexation of the Punjab by the British a transformation took place and the British impressed by the Sikhs as a martial race incorporated them in large numbers in the British Indian army. The British created exclusive Sikh and Punjab regiments which continued after India gained independence from the English. But after independence a new phenomena appeared. In fact this phenomena only gained momentum after 1947 but in reality extends to the beginning of the 20th century when Sikhs began to migrate abroad to the USA, UK and Canada.

Over the decades the West beckoned the Sikhs and they migrated abroad in large numbers. The reason was obvious as the money was good and the living standard better. Thus the first aim of a young man from Punjab is to try and migrate abroad. It must be remembered that almost a million Sikhs have migrated abroad and every household in Punjab has its fair share of migrants in the UK, USA and Canada. The result on recruitment to the army has in the bargain suffered. Recently a senior officer friend of mine commented to me that quality Sikhs were no longer joining the army as they preferred to go abroad and earn more money.

This is a fact and the elite Sikh and Punjab regiments of the Indian army are facing a quality crunch. Can anything be done about it. I am afraid nothing much as the West is the El Doradao and Sikhs prefer going there than holding a rifle in the bleak mountains of Ladakh.\

The Pakistan Army Officer has Slipped from being a Gentleman

People who have spent time as part of this Army will vouch safe that the British imbibed one principle into the officer cadre that an officer in addition to his other chores as a fighter was basically a gentleman. This is the ethos of the officer cadre in the Indian army. The Pakistan Army was also a part of the British Indian Army. But after independence the Pakistan officer cadre has drifted away from the ethos of an officer as a gentleman as well. Such a statement is indeed strong, but the facts speak for themselves. The Pakistan officer cadre is responsible for some heinous crimes, notably in Bangladesh. The 1971 war brought out the sorry spectacle of Pakistan army carrying out a massive rape of the Bangladesh population. Incidents like the girls from Dacca University being abducted and raped are common knowledge. A commission of inquiry after the war established this to a great extant. Even earlier the tribal rape of Baramulla during the 1947-48 war cannot be forgotten. The acts are reprehensible only because the tribal's were led by officers of the Pakistan Army.

But the biggest crime that history will never absolve the Pakistan officer cadre is the fact that a lot many Indian POWs are still in jail in Pakistan after the 1971 war. The holding of these prisoners that have been confirmed by letters smuggled out from the jails as well as by Prisoners who have been released point to a sorry spectacle. Even Gen Mushraff the Pak president himself a soldier was unable to unravel the mess. The official denial continues and it is sad not only for the prisoners but the Pakistan army officer cadre.

The code of conduct for an officer is a matter of honor. Fight and kill- yes that is what he is trained for but underneath, the concept of the Raj of fair play and going by the rules is paramount. I wonder how the officers of the Pakistan army can look themselves in the mirror and claim that they are right. Perhaps all this has a lot to with Islamization drive in Pakistan army. The conversion of a secular force into a religious dominated force is a tragedy.

The ethos of the officer as a gentleman so sacrosanct to the Raj has suffered. Who is to blame for this? I am afraid the blame lies on the two nation theory propounded by Jinnah.

Mickey Spillane and Mike Hammer; Love and Hoods

Spillane's books are laced with sex and violence. This was his staple diet and he created a character named Mike Hammer who has all the trademark of the original Bond. He is strong, macho and a man who loves the company of women. He is an ex cop and he fights the hoods at their game. Mickey created Mike Hammer as a hood, a lawman hood to catch the evil hoods. Mickey always felt that to catch a hood you needed a hood. Mike hammer was loved by the reading public in the fifties and sixties of the last century. I understand Mike Hammer's books alone sold 60 million copies. That is a massive figure. Mike also killed without compunction and loved and left women like pebbles on a beach.

Spillane was a veritable machine and churned out some 18 books with him as hero. Prominent are "I The Jury", "My Gun is quick", "vengeance is Mine", " One lonely Night", " the Big Kill" and many more. One can't forget the last line of a I the Jury, which ends with the lines " Juno was a man !".

Mike Hammer endeared himself to the American public and a string of TV serials about him have sprung on the screen. The last serial was in 1997 with Stacy Keach playing the role of Mike Hammer. Hollywood was not far behind and over 20 films with Mike hammer as the central character have been made. The last being " Come Die With me " in 1994 and a compilation " Mike Hammer: song Bird" in 2003. Spillane was a genius and deserves credit in literature's hall of fame. I place the character Mike Hammer on a par with James Bond

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