Who Killed Benazir Bhutto?

The audacity of politicians, especially Pakistani rulers, to think rest of the people as dumb and ignorant baffles me beyond any limit. I mean, agreed, we are mere mortals who live and breath towards bright and preferably, comfortable future. And they (Pakistani rulers) are more of, well, Darth Vader. So, yes, there are itsy-bitsy differences. But in no way we are this dumb. Yes, we like to believe in ‘Slam Dunks’ or ‘Mission Accomplishments’. Hell, we are even ready to believe that Mr. Musharaff is a peace dove (worthy of Peace Nobel!) and working incessantly towards eradicating Al-Quaida. But we ain’t going to believe that Al Qaida killed Benazir Bhutto.

I am ready to believe some unknown extra-terrestrial, traveled thousands of light years just to kill a horse look alike political leader of a failed state on the Earth. But for the love of all that is sweet in on the mother earth, don’t tell me that Musharaff didn’t kill Bhutto. Please. Please have some mercy on my common sense.

After all this verbatim the question remains, who killed Benazir Bhutto? Indians? They have vested interest in keeping Pakistan in turmoil. They could kill her and keep Pakistan away from stable democracy. Americans? May be. There is no ulterior motive here in killing her. But then Americans ain’t exactly known for taking pragmatic steps. Al-Quida? Possibly. They left the paid membership of Pakistan Fan Club some time ago. By keeping Pakistan in turmoil their Terrorist Universities will certainly have bigger freshman class this year.

But in all these above ‘line-up’ characters we are assuming that Benazir’s killers want Pakistan in turmoil. Isn’t it possible that the Killer(s) may actually want to eliminate possible choices of powers in Pakistan’s politics (notice that I am not mentioning Democracy anywhere)? Apart from Pakistani elite class and Army there is no one in this whole universe (including E.T’s!) who wants to rule Pakistan. First, it is an Islamic state. Second, it’s a failed state. Repeat these two sentences again and again and you will have Pakistan in making. Yes, people would like to control them. But that’s just to make sure that they don’t send home-grown Terrorist talent as a Christmas gift but that’s about it. This logic takes out India and Americans out of equation.

It is hard to comment anything on Al-Qaida. The demarcation lines between reality and myth, reality and what Americans wants world to believe is so thin and blurred that to comment on Al-Qaida is throwing darts in the dark. (I miss them all even in broad day light. But that’s beside the point!) More ever it is next to impossible to pin-point where Al-Qaida stops and Taliban begins or where both stop and ISI (Pakistan’s CIA) begins. But even under these circumstances we can safely say that Al-Qaida will be least interested in Benazir Bhutto. More pressing concern for them at this point of time (Apart from Americans burning their tails) is Musharaff. However half hearted attempt it might be but Musharaff and Pakistani army – the only patron saint of Talibans, under pressure from US, is definitely not making these terrorists life easier. If anything then this blatant betrayal makes Musharaff as numero-uno target of Al-Qaida & Co. So, this takes them out of line-up too.

And, it leaves us in a weird situation where there are no killers in this murder investigation. Hmm….perhaps, she is still alive and plotting to take over Pakistan! All righty, let’s come back to the three dimensional world.

Musharaff ran Pakistan for straight 8 years. Unhindered power makes people crave for more power. I mean, this isn’t a revelation. But lately Bush government in order to show something to their home voters started pressing Musharaff to transition power to the democracy. Now, Musharaff already listened to US once and sent guns towards Taliban, the same organization that his Army nurtured for years. His grand plan was to take over Afghanistan and keep India in check by maintaining large resource of militants. All these plans came down tumbling in post-September 11 geo-political scenario. But he stuck with pragmatic note and sided with powerful master. But it is too much for him now that US is forcing him from his power. He could take care of Nawaz Sharif but Benazir was getting out of hand. She first stuck secret deal with Musharaff in order to gain entry into the country. But after getting support from US, she conveniently tried to back-stab Musharaff. Of course, this guy is not only a seasoned dictator but he still has strong backing of Army and he had enough. Ka-boom!!!

Of course, all this is too obvious. Yet, media and political class across the nations are refusing to see the reality. It is not easy to accuse anyone even in normal criminal cases, lest that includes political figures. In any case, who cares of justice anyways. There is only one option left in Pakistan and everyone has to cling to him

Modi Vs. Reality

In one of the most stupid electoral analysis of BJP’s stronghold in Gujrat, author summed BJP’s successes in Gujrat as ‘in 1995 they won on Ram Temple aftermath, in 2002 they won by killing Muslims and now, they will probably win because of Sonia Gandhi’s statement that generated communal fervor’ I mean, we ain’t talking about, Bihar – the corrupt state in India, or Orissa – the most backward state in India or not U.P. – most casteist or communal state in India but about Gujrat – the most industrialized state with one of highest literacy rate and state with best infrastructure in India. This may sound funny but it ain’t so. More ever, this analysis wasn’t published by mock journalists like Barkha Dutta or Rajdeep Sardesai or by leftist TV channel like NDTV but in Indian Express, supposedly premier name in Indian political journalism. And, if you read other electoral analysis in any newspaper, similar theme is hard to miss. By making such dumb analysis they effectively labeled Gujratis as dumb, communal and Hindu Talibani. And, electoral victories of BJP are surmised merely on the basis of communal Hindu frenzy generated by RSS and Co.

Just in case if reader hasn’t read the newspaper lately (and it’s quite possible considering the news quality in Indian media) then BJP won handsomely in Gujrat. They won seats in Rural as well as Urban areas. They won votes among literate as well as illiterate people. They won across the caste lines and all this, with the campaign plank of development and slogans of ‘Vaibhav-shali Gujrat’. (Prosperous Gujrat) The election was fare and peaceful by best standard practices. No vote booth grabing, no liquor distribution in poor areas and no forceful vote stamping by party hooligans, which usually happens in U.P, Bihar and yes, our beloved West Bengal.

Then the obvious question that arises is that why Indian media is so resolutely against Mr. Modi or for that matter, against BJP? Having bias towards other political parties is one thing but in order to prove non-existing reality, generating false reports is all together different. Because, in that case there is certain agenda that Media lab wants to impose on people. I don’t want to go into conspiracy theories here but it boggles my mind to see India media so far removed from the reality, so much immersed into self-gratification and sensationalism and worst, being judgmental in publishing news.

The reality is that Mr. Modi was bound to win the election from the day one. He is non-corrupt as well as progressive. His schemes for primary education as well as woman’s education are worth laudable. His zeal to build infrastructure is stupendous and his ability to fight pinko-leftist and psudo- human right activist are legendry. But I guess, these are the precise reasons Media hates him. But as I said earlier, it’s ok if he is not a darling of Media but that doesn’t mean they will paint him as a villain.

I think Mr. Modi doesn’t play by the rules, usually written and ‘enforced’ by Nehruvian Media. He don’t’ talk bull shit. He doesn’t harp on caste politics. More ever, he doesn’t worry about minority appeasement. I mean, not doing minority appeasement is usually equated as treason by ‘secular’ media. (It’s a different matter that in recently published government survey about Muslim community, Muslims in Gujrat are better off than most of the other part of the country.) He is tough on terrorist. He doesn’t mind killing terrorists in fake encounters. And, in a country where expressing Hinduism is a taboo, he is unabashedly, Hindu.

It is pity that the reality that Media is trying to portray is in fact, work of their imagination. This is how they would love to see in reality but sadly it ain’t so. But in this game of ‘communalism’ that media loves to play, the ultimate looser is a common man. Because, he (not in gender way) doesn’t want anyone else to decide what is good and what is bad for him but merely needs information, pure information, and unbiased, non-partisan information from the media. Isn’t that what media is supposed to do anyway?