[BITList] BANGALORE – THE HEARTLESS CITY [2 Attachments]

[John Feltham]

Read the pdf attached file and be surprised.



> BANGALORE – THE HEARTLESS CITY
> 
> by CH Gomes
> 

> Anzac Day.
> 

> On Sunday, 25th April 2010, tens of thousands of people turned out at dawn services across the towns and cities in New Zealand and Australia to remember fallen ANZAC servicemen and women. In the country's largest city and commercial capital, over 10,000 gathered outside the Auckland War Memorial Museum at the biggest service. The Mayor of Auckland Mr John Banks said, "We do not seek to glorify war. Rather, we are here to honour and reflect on the service that so many men and women gave to our country. As the sun rises this morning, we turn our eyes to the glory that surrounds the memory for those who died for this nation in the honourable pursuit of peace." The official ceremony was held in Wellington, the nation’s capital at the National War Memorial, where an estimated 3000 people attended the ceremony at the capital's cenotaph.
> 
> Prime Minister John Key and Chief of Defence Forces General Jerry Mateparae were both at Gallipoli, where they attended the Turkish International Service to mark the 95th anniversary of the Anzac landings in Gallipoli. The service took place at the large Mehmetcik Abidesi site, the main Turkish memorial, some way from Anzac Cove. Prime Minister John Key told the Turkish Service that it demonstrated the importance of the Gallipoli campaign not just for New Zealand and Australia but also for Turkey and the huge range of other nations involved. "It is not just the sons of Europe that lie in the cemeteries on this peninsula, but also those of Asia, Africa and North America. This is a powerful testament to the true international nature of this conflict." (At last year’s Anzac Day observance in Wellington, PM John Key said, “We salute their willingness to fight to preserve our freedoms and ideals. They were everyday people who rose to heights of sacrifice.”)
> 
> Wreaths were laid by Mr Key and representatives of Australia, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Canada, Ireland, Britain and Germany, which were all involved in the Gallipoli campaign. Anzac day was also celebrated in capitals of several countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Kenya as a gesture of solidarity. ANZAC Day like November 11 (which is variously called Armistice Day, Veterans Day or Remembrance Day) is observed around the world. It is more or less a generic day honouring any soldier who has died in battle, in every Commonwealth country, Europe and the US. (In Kenya the ceremony was attended by Captain Srikant Kesnur, Indian Navy of Karnataka, the military attaché who had this to say, “ANZAC day was commemorated in Nairobi on 25 Apr at the Commonwealth war graves cemetery on the Ngong road. The Nairobi war cemetery is incredibly well maintained and beautiful and the Remembrance Day in November is even more well attended and impressive. A huge expat population of all countries makes this a truly international cosmopolitan affair. Sadly Indians are the only ones who do not attend but perhaps they are not to be blamed as many are not even aware of what our soldiers did on this continent during the two wars and in peacekeeping missions thereafter). He also sent me the attached photograph and programme card.
> 
> **************
> 
> The Indian Scene
> 
> Has any Prime Minister, Chief Minister of a state or Mayor of any city in India ever spoken in praise of the numerous veterans at a remembrance function or at any public function hosted for veterans? The CM of Tamil Nadu in fact insulted the returning IPKF soldiers when they landed In Chennai after being de-inducted from Sri Lanka and only last year hijacked the Armed Forces’ Flag Day function and converted it into a party affair. (Incidentally, have you ever wondered what happens to the proceeds from the sales of flags on Flag Day?). In the past 63 years– despite being the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Indian Union - only one President (Abdul Kalam) found the time to visit the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate and lay a wreath. The present incumbent of Rashtrapathi Bhavan cannot even spare a minute to meet a delegation of Veterans who came to her door to hand over a memorandum and to return their medals.
> 
> India is perhaps the only Commonwealth country that does not observe a remembrance day of any kind. Have you ever wondered why India does not do memorials as a cultural thing? One of the first things that strikes you as you travel around in Europe and Australasia is the number of war memorials. These are not, like Emperor Constantine’s arches or Nelson’s column, which are odes to military victory. These are plain, simple memorials for mortal souls, a name etched in stone, metal, and even bronze or plastic. They are non-religious, non-communal, non-political, remembering the boys (and girls) who died so you and I could live.
> 
> We celebrate Independence Day, Republic Day etc with extreme zeal. We teach our school children how wonderful our armed forces are, to revere war heroes and watch them march down Rajpath on Republic Day. We weep buckets in Bollywood war movies, or when Lata Mangeshkar sings “Ae mere watan ke logon”.  But we simply refuse to remember our soldiers who have died, consistently, in every war or engagement. We have national holidays for mythical superheroes from 2000 BC, but we cannot set aside a single day to remember our war heroes from the 20th century. Why? Maybe sociologists, anthropologists and psychologists who study these things can tell why we Indians insist on having mass amnesia. The Maharashtra government plans to spend crores to put up a statue of Shivaji at sea of the Mumbai coast, to rival the Statue of Liberty in New York.
> 
> The Bangalore conundrum. There was a ray of hope that this anomaly would be corrected but now that is extinguished – unless better sense prevails. Thanks to the initiative of an MP (Chandrasekhar) from Bangalore, the Karnataka government allotted land for a national war memorial in the cantonment city of Bangalore. The foundation stone was laid in mid 2009 by the Governor and the Chief Minister of the state and plans were afoot to construct the memorial. But now one hears that a group of concerned citizens of Bangalore has filed a PIL in the high court of Karnataka against the memorial on environmental grounds – proving once more that as a nation we are ungrateful for the many sacrifices of the brave soldiers and this ingratitude is epitomised by Bangalore’s citizenry’s insensitivity – and as a Bangalorean, I am ashamed. Ironically, Bangalore is the only Indian city to host so many defence establishments plus Defence PSUs, DRDO labs and should have been proud to have the first and only NATIONAL WAR MEMORIAL. Again, ironically, the campaign against the memorial is spearheaded by the one IT company who has benefited immensely from defence contracts!  
> 
> In India, the politico-bureaucrat nexus loses no opportunity to run down the Armed Forces and vilify the veterans. They are helped in this task by a section of the print media, ever ready to plant false stories and publish editorials that denigrate the service chiefs and spread pernicious rumours about the veterans. The average Indian (aam aadmi), however, has a lot of respect and affection for the fauji, because they know that not only does he guard the borders on land and sea but also when the chips are down, the fauji is there with his reassuring presence. When the civic administration fails and when law and order breaks down, the faujis are there to lend a helping hand. They are there to rescue the fishermen who venture out into the stormy seas off the Indian coast and to protect Indian shipping from pirates far away, off the coast of Somalia. They are there to save the people from themselves when mobs go on the rampage and police men and officers cower in terror or ‘side’ with the mob. They are there to pull out little boys from bottomless pits. They are there to provide relief and succour after an earthquake, flood or tsunami and even when the city (of Bombay) goes under water due to heavy rains and choked drains and when terrorists hold the city to ransom – and now to help run the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. 
> 
> Very recently, moved by the plight of Capt CS Sidhu, who had lost one arm in the service of our nation fought a long-drawn, one-armed battle, for his pension, the Supreme Court expressed its indignation that army officers were being treated ‘like beggars’  by the government.
> 
> 
> How about another memorial? For 26/11?
> 
> How many memorials have you ever seen anywhere in India or even in Mumbai to this horrible massacre? New York has one for 9/11. There’s a 7/7 memorial in Hyde Park Corner in London — with names of all those who died in the tube bombings in London. Who will remember PSI Tukaram Omble, Major Unnikrishnan of the NSG and the hundreds of policemen and civilians who were needlessly killed by a gang of bloodthirsty goons, 50 years from now, so that a transient tourist could stumble on a plaque and know how and what they died for?
> 
> 



> 




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20100430/fc2fc32e/attachment-0003.shtml 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IND CEM.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 69945 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20100430/fc2fc32e/attachment-0001.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20100430/fc2fc32e/attachment-0004.shtml 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: anzac day.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 1075775 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20100430/fc2fc32e/attachment-0001.pdf 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20100430/fc2fc32e/attachment-0005.shtml