Vox Populi Issue 269

 

                                                           VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 269                      Date: 18.01.2019

                    Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

 

Contents:       

1. Pulwama Was A Major Security Lapse

2. Sri Lanka Pull Off A Fantastic Victory At The Kingsmead Test In Durban 

3. Narendra Modi Fighting Corruption?

                                Pulwama Was A Major Security Lapse

I hate writing this but the narrative has not changed about terrorism in India since the Mumbai blast cases. Every time we wake up only after a terrorist attack takes place and then we go through the same breast beating exercises, the blood boil dialogues, the threat scenarios against Pakistan, the photo-ops by the politicians with the victim's coffins but then no one asks the question did the 48 odd CRPF jawans deserve to die at Pulwama? Could our government, the authorities and the jawan's bosses not have done any better?  Why do we always allow the enemy get the upper hand? It is only in India that an Air Force base gets attacked. It is only in India that many military and para-military bases get attacked. The reason for that is simple. We are lax in our security measures and do not enforce it with 'no tolerance'. Why? Because our jawan's lives are cheap! Take Pulwama for instance. The J&K Governor has himself admitted that security warnings had come to the police and security forces about a terrorist attack on our para-military forces, but it was not passed on. Why was civilian traffic allowed on the road? Why was according to some reports private vehicles allowed to weave in and out of the  bus convoys? Why were the 2500 jawans moved on buses which were bunched together? The jawans were sitting ducks. If the jawans had to urgently return to their posts of duty, why could they not have been airlifted?  The bad weather not allowing traffic on the Jammu Srinagar road for a few days earlier is no excuse for organising such a convoy. The number of terror incidents in the Valley over the last few weeks had been on the increase. Why was the likelihood of a terror attack not anticipated?  The Jammu Srinagar road is claimed to be a sanitised road. Then how did 200 Kg.of explosives which was estimated to be in the SUV that hit the CRPF bus moved on the road?  A tragedy was waiting to happen and it happened. We are lucky that the lives lost  were only below 50. The loss could have been much, much more. After this we hope that our authorities starting from NSA Doval down the line to the last jawan are in a state of 24x7 preparedness particularly in disturbed area like Kashmir so that we do not unnecessarily lose the lives of Indian people. A celebrated American General, George C Patton during WWII famously said - You do not win wars by dying for your country but you win wars by making the enemy die for their country. So first let us take care of the lives of our people before we start wanting to kill the people of the enemy. 

           Sri Lanka Pull Off A Fantastic Victory At The Kingsmead Test In Durban 

That cricket is a game of glorious uncertainty was brought home again on the pitch at Kingsmead, Durban, South Africa where Sri Lanka pulled off a very unlikely but sensational win against South Africa on 16th Feb 2019 in the first Test of the 2 match series. One can say that at Kingsmead a miracle was made. Sri Lanka had just crossed 200 chasing a target of 304 to win but had lost 6 wickets. So for anyone watching the game Sri Lanka was a write-off since with the pace trio of Steyn, Rabada and Olivier backed up by the spin of Maharaj, 304 was not going to happen. Kusal Perera was at one end with a comfortable 70 under his belt and was watching his colleagues come and go at the other end unable to combat the bowling of the named foursome. It was then that Vishwa Fernando came to the crease as the last man in. Until then Perera was mixing caution with aggression and trying to reach his century as a consolation for himself and Sri Lanka from the match. But then he realised that nearing his century the 304 mark for victory was not too far off. Therefrom he intelligently started to farm the strike protecting Fernando from the bowlers who were throwing everything at the batsmen including short, rising balls to the body and getting his boundaries of at least one in an over preferably a 6. There was no issue of time since time was on Perera's side. Fernando for his part soldiered on bravely, ducking and dodging the balls coming at his lithe frame but more importantly keeping the ball away from his wickets or giving a catch to the cordon of fielders surrounding him like sharks. It was engrossing to watch the journey of the Perera-Fernando duo that was nail biting suspense and euphoria whenever Perera got a boundary that took them closer to the winning total. This way the pair reached 300 and then with Rabada bowling a ball wide of the off-stump, Perrera nudged it through the vacant slips for 4 and it was all over. Sri Lanka had won. This match will go down in cricket annals as one of the best winning run chases  in cricket history particularly that of Sri Lanka. With Sri Lanka not doing too well in international cricket these days with a fledgling young side, this victory will be a tremendous boost to their morale. Coming also at the start of the South African tour it will pep them up to do well in the rest of the matches which will be a good thing for cricket. Sri Lanka Well Done & Keep It Up. 

                                         Narendra Modi Fighting Corruption?

Narendra Modi has this penchant of calling the Mahagathbandhan of Opposition parties formed to oust him as a collection of people out to protect their corruption and also called it a milawat. One needs to ask Modi that if his allegations are true than what was he doing since 2014 to bring these corrupt people to justice. The people of India gave him the massive mandate in part for his slogan - Na khaunga, Na khane dunga - so that corruption in the country was wiped out. But nothing was done on any of the major financial scandals that had rocked the country and only coming to the fag end of his term in a vindictive mode Modi and his government have gone against Akhilesh Yadav for illegal sand mining, Mamata Banerjee for the chit find scams, Rahul & Sonia Gandhi for the National Herald case,  Robert Vadra for his land deals and  P Chidambaram for the INX Maxis deal. It is abundantly clear that this is being done for electoral gains in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Thus there was no seriousness to catch and punish the corrupt by Narendra Modi who has turned out to be like any other politician. The verdict is still out on the Rafael deal which may still turn out to be the biggest corruption case in independent India in which Narendra Modi has had his hands dirtied. BJP claiming to be a party with a difference has also turned out to be a party with no difference. And Narendra Modi has lived up to the chaiwala epithet bumbling along with his narrow minded agenda to seek only credit for himself and his government and in that process rode roughshod over professional people and destroyed most of the autonomous institutions in this country in the short span of 5 years. 

                                                      ***************************