Gandhi Ji , Godse and Maoist !

This issue always keeps coming back. Is violence justified for the right cause? Can one offer non-violence in return for violence so that we can change hearts of the violent ?

How about offering amnesty to terrorists and flowers inviting them to place a few more bombs in our trains? How about taking a non-violent walk through the Chattisgarh forests by the DG and Chief Secretary and may be they get massacred, but it is fine...let us change hearts. We can recruit fresh ones to send again? I find most of the times the CRPF jawans seem to be doing the same, lacking the requisite training to kill-- walking peacefully to get blown up. We send more.

Japan committed to non-combat status and suddenly found itself recently at disadvantage with China. Intemperate North Korea, Pakistan seems to have better respect in the world.

Gandhi Ji I respect for humanistic values.But his success came more because the Britisher was also respecting the value system he represented. In current dispensation, such a man would have died of jaundice or broken spine, as a result of hospitality in our jails. JP did not survive.

If press and many intellectuals today are so supportive of Maoists, take for instance, Arundhati Roy et al. , and also turn blind eye to human rights of Kashmiri Pundits thrown out lock stock and barrel from their homes by violent means by community believing only in violence as dictated by their daily religious teachings, what are options for the society thus suffering?

In the changed circumstances, in what way one Godse is different from the Maoist of today? Both cases, did not involve personal gains but principles and in their view, societal benefit and larger interest. So one may expect a divided opinion about both of them. Not as unanimous as it used to be.

History shows we are all as a race are basically quite cruel and ruthless when given unquestioned power. When reactions could be as severe, then the system finds some balance. The predator instincts still seem to work even in Wall street or Dalal Street, or in Dharavi slums or Dantewadi forests.

Angels like Gandhi depending on time and space and prevailing circumstances, are treated as angels or devils depending on relevance to larger interests of the society. He could walk the streets normally.

So today all our leaders travel in bulletproof cars and even their dogs sniffing for explosives and assuring security have bullet-proof jackets.

But people like me in Hyderabad, keep walking the dusty potholed roads congested, and with burning eyes from the polluted air and managing the vegetable market prices, drawing a little solace from the Laxman's commom man's sayings. We also hurry home quickly before the next wave of shouting and attacking mobs rush out on the roads closing the market. That has become our life style for the last one year.

Where do we go?