True Democracy?

I cannot fathom the reason behind the amount of media attention given to the emergency in Pakistan. Pakistan was never a truly democratic state to begin with and the emergency imposed by Pervez Musharraf does not come as a great surprise. But inspite of this glaring fact, the Indian media seems to be taken up with this event.

Is this a clever political tactic to divert our attention from the situation in Nandigram, a village in the world's largest democracy? I saw no evidence of Lincoln's principles in Nandigram when scenes from the village were broadcast last night. It appears that CPI cadres have taken over the area with the tacit approval of the police and are holding the villagers hostage.

The news channels seem to have nothing better to do than station reporters in front of theatres across Mumbai and Delhi and ask people which movie is better, Om Shanti Om or Saawaria.

Words like freedom of choice and such are regularly bandied about by our esteemed Prime Minister, but inspite of having the third largest standing army in the world at his disposal, Mr. Singh seems to be powerless to stop this situation. Why this hypocrisy? I am sure if the BJP was responsible for the problems in Nandigram, the Congress would stop at nothing to hunt them down. However Mr. Singh has taken a liking to 7, Racecourse Road, and would go to any extent to humour his allies.

While scenes from the area are broadcast for the entire nation to see, Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya comes on camera, trying to downplay the incident and has the audacity to say no one in the area in under duress. We believe you sir.

While we can all rejoice the fact that another diwali has gone with several of us getting new cell-phones and cars for the festive season, some of our fellow countrymen are still fighting the battle which was supposedly over in 1947. Is this what all our heroes died for?