Kasmir and Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy has been making waves across the country with her views about India and Kashmir. While everyone is free to air comments which they feel are justified, I would like to ask her a few questions in this regard. Firstly, she calls Indian presence as one of the most brutal miltary regimes in the world. I would want to know how many military regimes has she actually seen in her life, has she visited, Myanmar, any African conflict ridden zone, Srilankan occupation of Jaffna, or even closer home, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir or China occupied Tibet for that matter. She seems to have decided based on her limited factual understanding in this particular case. Other question that I would put is, if it is oppresssive regime, how come she could make such statements from Srinagar itself. Would she be able to do the same in any other part of the world. I would like to know how many Chinese writers have written about demographic and other forced changes in Tibet or similar such stuff in Jaffna in Srilanka. It is relatively easy to blame anything and everything on Indian Armed Forces, whether it is a theft or a rape which they did not even commit (as was the case in Shopian). Even local criminal activities are blamed on the armed forces and instead of realizing the fact that Kashmir like any other part of the world is facing issues brought out by internal differences, most criminal elemnt can escape by crying foul over the activities of Indian Armed Forces.

I do not say that there should be armed occupation of Kashmir or for that matter any other place in this world. It is certainly a problematic situation, no one would like to be dictated about what to do and what not to do on daily basis for so many years at a stretch. Had it been any other part of India, results would have been no different. However, this also does not mean that Kashmir is completely without fault. What kind of society allows its youngsters too go astray institutionally, why cant they be asked to set up businesses in such a motivated manner thereby ensuring jobs and better life for everyone.

I personally do not support the idea of independence based on religion alone. At least this is what Geelani and Co keep harping about. It would be just another blunder in the series of problems that we are facing in south-east Asia. A fundamentalist Kasmir is not good for anyone, not even for the Kasmiris themselves. I would like to put up another question before Ms Roy, does she think that those trained in arms would forget their training in a day after Kashmir becomes independent and start behaving like doves. Well if this is so, I would like to oint at Afghanistan and several countries in Africa as living examples of how this does not work. It is nothing but the initiation of a series of unending conflicts, which may today not be visible.

More importantly, instead of demoralizing the armed forces by calling them brutal and opressive, would Ms. Roy not be better off imparting literature related education in University of Kashmir and thus helping several youngters realize a dream of good education and subsequently more meaningful existence.

Mobile handset market India

Possibly the most competitive and dynamic market today is the mobile handset market. Broadly speaking the market has three primary segments based on customer requirements. First segment is the mass market at the lowest end within price range of INR 2000. All basic features such as sms, mms, FM radio apart from calling form this set of market. First time users, small business users (such as taxi drivers etc) comprise this demographic segment. Students often form a part of this segment in the form of an add on connection. Second segment is the middle income segment with requirements varying from access to internet over the mobile including various social networking sites frequently accessed by youthful consumers. This is the most interesting market with handset features varying from camera,video capture, push mail, internet, direct access to facebook, orkut, touchscreens etc. Price range is directly propostional to features, for example higher the mega pixels of a camera higher the price. Higher end users may find some of the options like push mail especially useful. On the last end of the segment are the smartphone users, essentially the corporate users. The smartphones include the blackberry to samsung galaxy or Motorola druid, that enable editing of documents, powerpoint or excel management etc.

The next wave of mobile handsets would bring smarter phones at lower price points. With 3G expected around the corner, better features would be expected by the customers. Smartphones capable of inter-connectivity between GSM/CDMA/WiMAx/LTE would form the next generation.

Maoist threat in India

History presents several examples of when a rising threat was not realised and dealt with it has led to decimation of mighty empires. whether it was appeasement policy of West in the case of Hitler's rise or the more recent Maoist rise in neighbouring Nepal, the final result is for the world to see. n either case the situation led to major loss of live and change in power positions which were /are not in the best interest of democracy as a whole. However,, failure to check such groups at the earliest stages has always resulted in escalation of problems. Indian Naxalite/Maoist issues are no different and successive Governments has been blindly ignoring them bringing us to today's situation wherein the CRPF seems ill prepared to tackle their might on their turf.

First let me make it clear that I do not see Maoists as any different from other terrorists and brigands who prey on country's resources when it is not clear what exactly is the issue that they are fighting for. Our democratic nature has shown that whenever people have taken an issue forcefully by choosing an appropriate political representative things have improved, e.g. Bihar, Nitish Kumar has shown the way in this regard. So, why bother to carry arms around when you have other more potent options, I agree they may be slow but they are definitely more effective. The maoist leadership is ready to spend their time in forests training the people wit guns and weapons but cant they actually go to he villages and impart basic education, help them with health and sanitation issues, help them develop understanding for the democratic process and try to bring tribal population closer to the other groups. What is easier is to simply take a gun and start proclaimg that some day we will have a idealistic government where every thing will be ideal, all equal and other crap. It has been proven beyond doubt that such gun based revolutions are either not sustainable or they lead to series of battles, wherein the gun wielding leaders battle for supremacy. The point is once you teach a citizen that gun is he solution why at all would he/she ever believe in ballot? I think this is where the Gandhinan philosophy needs to be understood. It is not about shying away from armed struggle bu with a long term view it is about what is the message that you are passing on to the people associated with you and the next generation. Look around at examples of final results of armed struggles, has democracy succeeded in such places. Either democracy could not sustain or could do so only after 40-50 years of struggle. Maoists are living in a world of their own when they should try and undersatnd the stark realities of world around them. What is required in our country is not gun wielding leaders but missionaries not affiliated to any other cause but to the cause of upliftment development and education of tribal population. Robin Hoods and their varied avatars are not required any more and in any case the Maoists are hardly like Robin Hood, they are mafia dons operating in mineral and forest rich areas of the copuntry, utilizing the national resources for buying weapons and waging a war when they should be helping the Central and State govrernmnet in enabling a process of improving the lot of people in such areas.

The massacre of CRPF has given enough indications of their designs, in fact the Maoist leadership has been harping about the fact that by 2015 they would have their own government. Enough damage has been done and it is high time that all political parties rise above their individual issues and work together to put an end to this menace for if it is not tackled at the highest priority level right now we any will not need to discuss about these areas as they would be lost from the Indian map for eternity. I strongly belive thisis an operation which should be jointly handled by state Police, CRPF and Army. Army should be able to provide the strategic angle for the police and paramilitary forces to effetively tackle the insurgents. If possible lateral recruiting of senior Army men in CRPF for the purpose should be resorted to in order to bring an operational edge to the entire process. The sooner the better is the mandate.......