WSJ’s caste obsession

Or to be a bit fair perhaps, more accurately the caste-obsession of its writer Paul Beckett. I have ranted his earlier  inane WSJ article. This latest one is pretty terrible as well (H/T: Rohit). Doesn’t add anything new – India is growing at a good rate, opportunities for everyone yadda yadda. But the Beckett chaps keeps dragging in the caste-issue, beginning at the beginning:

 Since it gained independence, India has been defined by socialism, poverty and a Hindu caste system that determined a person’s place in society from birth.

And here I thought wild elephants roaming in the street defined India ! And then again later:

Under the ancient but still-influential caste system, Brahmins like Mr. Bhat are at the top

Ironically, the next few sentences go on to describe how the Bhats have had to live in tents for a major part after being driven out of Kashmir! So much for being at the top.

The article however does raise a fair and important point about the education system in India, especially the failures at the primary and secondary levels:

One of the most critical reforms needed to ensure India’s continued economic growth is fixing a public-education system riddled with problems. Many teachers regularly fail to show up to class because it is difficult to fire them and they can earn more in private tutoring. Only 17% of Indians in their mid-20s and older have a secondary education, according to the World Bank.

Education reform is crucial if the government wants to gain the benefit from its youthful population and not simply end up with more uneducated workers to find jobs for. Reform also is needed to meet the rising demands and aspirations of India’s own citizens, even the poorest of whom now view education as the ticket out of the slums or impoverished hamlets.

The Indian government, economists and business leaders all have identified the need for better education, especially at the elementary and high-school levels. But many are disillusioned with government efforts. That has prompted calls for the private sector to take a more active role in promoting private schools even in remote and poor parts of the nation.

The Beebs Crystal Gazing Abilities….

…..are immense, as evinced by the following headline: “Rain saves India after Clarke ton” and the subsequent statement:

But rain began falling in the third over of India’s reply to end the tourists’s chances of making a winning start to the seven-match series.

This, in an ODI match that was abandoned only 2 overs after the Indian run chase began!!

Granted India lost Sachin in that time, and wasn’t really setting the field ablaze (not surprising considering the heavy downpour) . But the Beeb obviously does not believe in cricket being a game of uncertainties cliche, or the fat lady. By their weird standards (undoubtedly measured by the ‘king of whiners’ team called England) a score of 300+ is not something the Indians can do. What gumption !

And this is certainly not the worst blooper by BBC Sports this week !

Pankaj Mishra’s Intellectual Dishonesty

Pankaj Mishra writes an opinion piece for Outlook‘s India at 60 issue , seemingly cautioning on excessive championing of and reveling in India’s current resurgence at the cost of insensitivity to myriad problem that still plague the country. I say seemingly because that’s how he starts, and then meanders along without meaning much, while ending with a totally different point.

Mishra’s initial contention is that much of the current western world press are feeding a mistaken delusion of India’s potential to be a global economic, political and even cultural superpower (replacing the US). This he claims, is in the self-interest of Americans and that as Indians we should not avoid reality-checks (he even goes as far as to suggest that India will never really be able to achieve US’s geopolitical hegemony, and therefore should not aspire to). Finally, in an act that could only be described as self-fellatio, he claims that the ‘intelligentsia’ (such as him) are the only ones that can protect India from impeding doom of future development!!!

I could point out everything that’s wrong with the picture, but let’s just say that I have no issues with parts of Mishra’s theory: India faces numerous problems (particularly in public health and infrastructure) such that one should not get carried away by hyperboles. Unfortunately, by attacking a straw man of chauvinistic nationalism, Mishra is being intellectually dishonest. For example, he says:

Abruptly now, Time, Newsweek and Foreign Affairs hail India as a ‘roaring capitalist success story’, hoping that the country will be the US’s new ‘strategic partner’.

Plainly, the American business and foreign policy establishments have no choice but to seek new markets and allies in an uncertain post-9/11 world.

or, when he says:

At almost every level this nationalism seems to stem from a desire to achieve the kind of full-spectrum dominance the United States enjoyed in the second half of the 20th century,

Firstly, I find nothing wrong with aspiring for the political or economic success a country like US enjoyeds. Secondly, there are certainly some fervent nationalist (possibly those who keep spamming my Inbox with Mera Bharath Mahaan-type chain mails), but even in the feel-good articles he talks about, there is always a cautionary note about India’s drawbacks. In fact, I would say that in the very recent times, most articles on India in the Western press have tended to highlight shortcomings or negative aspects e.g. this earlier WSJ article I had talked about (and one could find more in Times, The Economist etc). Ironically, Mishra forgets that it was an American newspaper (albeit the New York Times) that asked him for a story on India’s problems !

And speaking of that article, Mishra is not happy with people who criticized him. But he employs a classic deflective tactic – rather than providing straight answers, you redefine the criticisms as symptoms of the critic’s low self-esteem and insecurity:

Imbued with this confidence, I am startled by the insecure and anxious nationalism I often find among many well-educated Indians: a self-esteem that is evidently so fragile that it can be undermined by a single dissenting article in the New York Times.

Anyhow, the opinion piece is further peppered with mind-numbingly inane assertions such as ‘Faced with imminent decline, great powers like the US become particularly prone to ideological illusion‘ – do read in full, at least for the entertainment value.

For sheer ludicrousness though, this one takes the cake:

the political temper of India’s intellectual class has remained largely liberal and tolerant—an admirable fact given that a relatively brief and limited experience of terrorism and immigration has swung large sections of the intelligentsia in western Europe and America to the Right.

(emphasis mine)
Now this is absolutely news to me – unless you consider Micheal Savage, Limbaugh and O’Reilly as the epitomes of western ‘intelligentsia’. Btw, the UK might have something to say about their ‘brief and limited experience’s with both immigration and terrorism.

Eventually, Mishra provides a solution – himself (not in so much words, but pretty much) !!

Happily, few countries seem more intellectually equipped than India. Travelling in China recently I met many academics and writers who confessed to me their envy of such Indian thinkers as Ashis Nandy, Arundhati Roy and Amartya Sen who could eloquently criticise the status quo in world politics and economy and outline a new vision of human possibility.

Indeed, the global Indian intelligentsia comprising of writers, economists, historians, sociologists and political theorists is as much,
if not more, impressive than the much written-about ‘pool’ of Indian scientists and engineers.

And the Chinese are right to admire it.

Perhaps I am not the most unbiased person to comment, coming as I do from the lowly pool of scientists, but two points anyway. One, the Chinese admiration perhaps stems a bit from jealousy at the fact that Mishra et al can say a lot of stuff without getting jailed for it. Second, Mishra thinks its wrong for Indians to take so much pride in some of the achievements and progress the country has made, yet he basks in self-glory and randomly slaps a sweepingly superior tag on the so-called Indian intelligentsia. The supreme irony of it !

————————————————————–

PS – I know I am dumb (not being part of the intelligentsia has its drawbacks), but someone please explain to me what the title means: ‘Superman Never Returns‘.

Of Casteism, Hinduism, Hi-tech Jobs and Cricket

What does caste, Hinduism, IT jobs and cricket (all with reference to India) have in common ? They feature in two recent examples of rank poor journalism and grossly ignorant (perhaps deliberate) misinterpretation of India by western journalists. Therefore, opportunities to rant !

In brief, exhibit A: according to Paul Beckett of Wall Street Journal, India’s corporate ladder has for years followed the strict Hindu caste systems, which has only been relaxed recently due to India’s economic resurgence (helped of course, by ‘international companies’) and the need to look beyond ‘traditional sources of employees’; and, exhibit B: Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph makes the even more jaw-dropping contention that India’s cricket failure abroad stems from the Hindu fear of traveling overseas!!

Sigh ! How quickly can you say ‘colonial hangover’ ? Anyone ?

Now if you have stopped banging your head against the table or the wall nearest you, read on.

It gets hackneyed, but every once in a while you have to shake your head and marvel at how the mainstream media can resort to astoundingly low, scraping the barrel levels of journalism. Sadly, this is not the TOI or the Rediff comments section, its the supposedly venerable Wall Street Journal and the Telegraph of UK.

Take Beckett first He says:

But India’s rapid economic expansion — and its booming high-tech sector — are beginning to chip away at the historical system that reserved well-paying jobs for upper castes and menial jobs for Dalits. With annual gross-domestic-product growth exceeding 9%, companies that have hired tens of thousands of workers in recent years are looking beyond their traditional sources of employees. High-tech firms, both foreign and domestically based, are at the forefront of that search. As a result, some Dalits are rising into India’s middle class.
……..
Technology giant Infosys Technologies Ltd. now recruits from 700 colleges around India, many of them in semi-rural areas where lower-caste people often live, up from about 50 urban colleges 10 years ago, says T.V. Mohandas Pai, the company’s director in charge of human resources. “Today, a great number of the people whom we hire come from poorer backgrounds both economically and socially,” he says. “It is changing the ground rules in India.”

International companies are also having an impact. “We don’t give a damn about any of these differences in caste or religion,” says Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft Corp.’s India unit. “It has made talent the number one issue for all companies.”

(emphasis mine)

Nothing wrong with the primary assertion mind you. With an improving economy, more people will get jobs, become richer and less will be any perceived differences (as pointed out by Amit Varma in this article). The problem is that Beckett insinuates quite wrongly, perhaps for the ‘gasp-factor’ from his American audience, that India’s corporations have actively discriminated against non-Brahminical castes. If that had been the case, none of my non-Brahminical parents and relatives, or grandparents for that matter, would have amounted to anything. If there has been bias, it has been with respect to the poorer sections of the society with little access to good education – both primary and higher (The failure to provide equitable education to all surely lies with the government).

Beckett provides no statistics to back his claims – his central thesis relies on are a couple of juicy anecdotes. And the only piece of hard information used (“An August 2006 study of technology workers at multinationals or sizeable Indian tech companies found that 86% came “from upper castes and/or economically better-off communities.”[see update below]) actually tosses out his hypotheses. There is an altogether total failure to account for economic inequities irrespective of castes in the article.

Perhaps it is stronger elsewhere, but neither in Kolkata, nor in the economically rising Hyderabad-Secunderabad twin cities or the bustling Mumbai (places where I have spent considerable time), have I ever observed caste-based discrimination in job sectors. The only places I have observed its effects is where it has been enforced by the government – in the colleges I attended. Of course, my version is completely anecdotal, that is to say, no different from Mr Beckett’s.

Even while I am a fan of capitalism and free-market economy, the single-minded conservative rhetoric of the WSJ often irritates me. But considering their target audience, I figure that’s how it should be. Additionally, their reporting on India/China etc is much better than the usual, ‘oh look at the poor third world’ New York Times’ condescension. Unfortunately, Paul Beckett’s article goes the NYT way and lacks any kind of serious credibility.

(For additional humor, do check out the helpful cartoons on the side of the article that serves as a ‘Castes for Dummies’ guide.)

[UPDATE]: Rohit pointed me in the direction of the actual study mentioned in the WSJ article . Two points emerge from it. Firstly, the study was conducted with a sample size of 132 software professionals, and in Bangalore only ! And secondly, even the authors of that study acknowledge:

It is no one’s case that the industry deliberately practices discrimination on the basis of regional, community or other such ‘ascriptive’ identities. But it should be recognised that the requirements of a ‘global’ offshore or outsourcing business tend to exclude those from non-urban and less privileged backgrounds, who lack the social and cultural capital required to work in a ‘global’ environment. Industry leaders themselves acknowledge that there is such a filtering process, in that they have repeatedly urged that appropriate ‘soft skills’ be taught in schools and colleges.

Which goes against Beckett’s hypotheses of active discrimination in the work-place. Additionally, before others jump on this, I am not saying that casteism does not exist or is not a problem in India, but pointing out that Beckett grossly exaggerates its effect in the Indian corporate and does not take into account economic conditions or the failure of the government in providing basic education. And all his assertions seem to be based on hearsay.

——————-

The next rant is against this article by Scyld Berry ahead of the India’s cricket tour to England. Berry points out that Indians have been poor tourists with an abysmal away record and that before the arrival of John Wright as the coach, senior players were a pampered lot and got away with bad fitness etc. Sadly, all that is quite true. Where Berry starts going loony is with this insane assertion:

Then there is the attitude to playing away from home, away from their comfort zone of porters and waiters. Wright does not say so, but the Hindu belief that one lost caste when crossing the sea may have helped to set Indian cricket abroad off on the wrong foot, where it has more or less remained ever since.

(via)

Heh ! One wonders if that belief rubs off the Muslim players that accompany the team as well. Also Pakistan is not really ‘overseas’ – but we have a dismal record against them!

But wait, it gets better – apparently India has been ‘saved’ by one Rahul Dravid, who is…

….an urbane south Indian who has played for Kent and Scotland and become a cricketer of the world as well as India’s captain.

Now, pray explain who/what is (a) an ‘urbane south Indian’ – as far as I know the majority of Indian cricketers are from urban areas, with only recently players emerging from non-metropolitan cities; and (b) how does one become a ‘cricketer of the world’ ? Just because that person has played in England (and Scotland) – he gets blessed with the title ? (as Rohit suggested, perhaps playing in England has made him overcome the Hindu fear of overseas).

Apart from the factual inaccuracies in the article, Berry goes overboard in trying to justify Dravid as the savior of Indian cricket. No one is doubting Dravid’s credentials and his immense contributions to the batting line-up and his presence on the field, but to say that he single handedly won the Headingly Test in 2002 is an exaggeration, in a match where Sachin and Sourav lead a savage assault on the English bowlers in the darkness of Day 2 evening (no doubt though about Dravid anchoring the innings early).

Btw, if you read the full report, you will be stuck by Mr Berry’s amazing powers of clairvoyance. He reads the minds of both John Wright (“Wright does not say so, but…”) and Rahul Dravid (“his reply was perfectly correct in what he said, but even more remarkable in what was unsaid…”). One wishes Mr Berry would use such superpowers to better uses.

What bothers me is how the theme in both articles are eerily similar – ah those poor Hindus with their entrenched caste systems and irrational superstitious beliefs etc. Further, how ironical is it that the opinions come from an American, in a country with a track record of slavery and discrimination till very recent times; and from an Englishman, because one wonder which tenets of Christianity makes the English cricket team such poor tourists to India and Pakistan ?

Tale of two perspectives

During a writing course I had attended last year, it was repeatedly stressed upon us that how you begin and end a sentence has significant impact in conveying your idea.

The same, I guess goes for news headlines.

In response to the fracas last August at Oval, where during the last cricket test match between England and Pakistan the latter team was accused of ball-tampering, an ICC Code of Conduct hearing found the Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq not guilty of that serious charge. He was however banned for four matches on charges of bringing the game into disrepute for refusing to bring his team out to play. Now in my mind, the tampering charges were much more serious than the decision of refusing to come out to play. The former casts moral aspertions since tampering is akin to cheating, while the latter actually was simply a consequence of the charge being levied against the team.

I guess Cricinfo agrees with meon the relative significance of the charges with their headline:

But ineterstingly, look at the BBC headline (as of 9.30am EDT):

Thus to the good folks at BBC, the ban on Inzi was the much more important news !

a

The End of the World, as they see it

It is not me indulging in dire apocalyptic predictions, but the news-channels – both the mind-numbing cable twenty-four hours as well as the brain-dead broadcast network variety – are mighty worried. Recent world events (conflict in the Middle East, heat wave in the US etc) seems to have convinced them that the end is near. Consequently they are going to town with stories about the Biblical prophecies of Armageddon and such bullshit.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, its no longer the town crackpot standing at the corner of Main Street with a sign – it’s your ‘reputable’ news-source that will have you scurrying to empty your bank balance and check out that neighbour’s wife who’s been eyeing you for all these years !   

CNN has taken the lead here. 

On July 31, CNN’s Paula Zahn Now featured a segment on “whether the crisis in the Middle East is actually a prelude to the end of the world,” marking the third time in eight days that CNN has devoted airtime to those claiming that the ongoing Mideast violence signals the coming of the Apocalypse. The segment included a report from CNN correspondent Delia Gallagher, which showed video clips of Christian author Joel C. Rosenberg comparing apocalyptic Scripture in the Bible to modern events.
…..
Throughout the segment, an onscreen graphic of fiery horsemen appeared alongside the words, “Is it the End?” The segment also featured images of biblical drawings interspersed with video of toppled buildings and rubble from what appeared to be the current Middle East conflict.
…..

And ABC’s Good Morning America decided to join the bandwagon:

On July 27, ABC’s Good Morning America joined CNN in featuring a segment on the potential coming of the Apocalypse, as indicated by current conflicts in the Middle East. Interviewing Christian authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, co-host Robin Roberts asked: “You see what’s going on: the bombing in Haifa and Israel and it’s so close to the valley of Armageddon. And when you think about that, and people see this and think about [it], is it indeed Armageddon?” Jenkins replied that “it seems like we are heading toward something, and people want to know what it is and want to be ready.”

More on this madness at Media Matters and a take on Paula Zahn here.

Since I do not watch TV news, I would have been blissfully unaware of such media tomfoolery. But alas, about a week and half ago I was at the Denver airport waiting for a red-eye flight. It was pretty late at night and the TV sets in the gate area kept blaring out CNN News and in particular, Paula Zahn’s shrilled plugging of her upcoming ‘news-story’ about the impending apocalypse. I was in a drowsy semi-conscious state at the time and half-expected (or perhaps hoped) that it was all a figment of my satrical imagination, fuelled by the print edition of The Onion I had been perusing recently. Unfortunately, it was all too real – as I found out while watching The Daily Show a few days later (see clip below).

I know these channels cater to the lowest common denominator. But if these denominators include people gullible enough to feed on such cocked-up stories, I’d rather really be attacked by locusts or be engulfed by a flood or whatever it is that those who don’t go to heaven are subjected to. In defense of the common-man though, even the highest policy-making body in arguably the most powerful country of the world seems to take the doomsday prophesiers seriously,

And here’s another data point: Joel C. Rosenberg, who writes Christian apocalyptic fiction, told me in an interview this week that he was invited to a White House Bible study group last year to talk about current events and biblical prophecy.

Rosenberg said that on February 10, 2005, he came to speak to a “couple dozen” White House aides in the Old Executive Office Building — and has stayed in touch
with several of them since.

Rosenberg wouldn’t say exactly what was discussed. “The meeting itself was off the record, as you could imagine,” he said. He declined to name the staffer he said invited him
or describe the attendees in any way other than to say that the president was not among them. “I can’t imagine they’d want to talk about it,” he said.

“I can’t tell you that the people that I spoke with agree with me, or believe that prophecy can really help you understand what will happen next in the Middle East, but I’m not surprised that they’re intrigued.”

Sigh !

Post-Scripts: 1. I started writing this on Wednesday – did not get a chance to post it earlier. But Wednesday evening, the local WB affiliate was showing a re-run of The Simpsons’ episode ‘Thank God, Its Doomsday‘, which has Homer predicting and waiting for the rapture ! Coincidence ? 😉

2. If you really want to be prepared, keep an eye on the Rapture Index.

3. Finally, Jon Stewart at his mocking best, as usual.

Media matters and such (updated)

Note: I have been having synchronization issues with my blog-editor and WP.com – hence this post may have appeared multiple times if you are using a feed reader. I apologize for any inconvenience.

A day after, the official death toll from the Mumbai blasts is 190. As expected, the famed resilience of Mumbai-ites is coming through and life seems to be getting back to normal: schools were open today, railway service is being restored gradually and the stock market is stable – even bullish.

I wanted to take this opportunity for a perspective on media coverage of the blasts. For me the best source of reliable information throughout has been the Indian blogosphere. Gaurav Sabnis, Amit Varma and Manish Vij did an excellent job updating regularly about the ground situation in Mumbai. Just plain and simple reporting of as much useful facts as possible – no sensationalizing, no opionionated discourses (Gaurav and Amit have since then voiced opinions as well). On top of all, kudos to all the bloggers at Mumbai Help – they went above and beyond and provided actual help, especially for friends and relatives trying to find news of their loved ones.

Other bloggers have shared their thoughts and experiences (loads of links as usual at DesiPundit). Of all of the blogs, this one post by Bishwanath Ghosh touched a chord. It examines our familiarity with the city of Bombay through the prism of ubiquitous Bollywood films.

Outside the Bandra station, I walked up to a man who I had known for 25 years — the good, old Bombay taxiwallah! Dozens of heroes — and dozens of times — have sought his help to chase the heroine or the villain or to simply go to work. He put the metre down and we set off. On the way, we crossed a stretch which I had known for — once again — 25 years! The Marine Drive.

That’s the thing about Bombay: you don’t have to go to the city to see it. Those into Hindi movies have grown up in it without even setting foot on it. That’s why it hurts even a Bihari or a Bengali when tragedy strikes far-off Bombay. It is the surrogate hometown of every Hindi movie-watcher.

The Indian visual media, on the other hand, seemed to be intent on an over-hyped and sensationalized presentation of the news – even to the extent of being exploitative . Many people have mentioned Rajdeep Sardesai’s shameless pandering to advertising interests. As Buchu points out:

Rajdeep Sardesai has been shrill and shrieking away, banging on about how CNN-IBN has these exclusive photos or whatever, his voice getting louder, like a child opening new presents as the death toll rises.

I also mentioned yesterday about the scant coverage of the blasts in American news media’s evening stories (perhaps they considered the news as old by then and less important to Bush’s apparent change of heart on Guantanamo prisoners). CNN’s Situation Room was particularly irksome. Considering that their partner in India (Sardesai and CNN-IBN) has been tooting their horn so much – I was surprised at the lack of on-the-spot reporting. Also, not just for this story – I simply don’t get the deal about Blitzer walking around a big room with overlapping news-feeds being projected on the screen. When I want news-feed, I will check the internet – on TV give me something in-depth. Over the last two years I have in general given up on traditional media, especially cable news with the thought that if anything is really important, it will be spoofed on The Daily Show or the Colbert Report. Yesterday I reaffirmed my decision.

Commenters on Sepia Mutiny have also talked about the rather underwhleming coverage of the story, especially in newspapers.

With regards to MSM, particularly galling was how BBC and today’s NPR Morning Edition gave so much credence to Musharaff’s ‘condemnation’ of the attacks. The Pakistani president’s statement is like a Columbian drug lord shedding tears for victims of overdose.

Getting back to alternate media, there was nothing, repeat, nothing – no mention at all about the incident on the left-wing American blogosphere (DailyKos, Washington Monthly etc). Last year, after the London Bombings, even Boing Boing had a few posts. Less said about the right-wing blogs, the better. They took this opportunity to further some of their Bush-worshipping, liberal-bashing agendas. Their ignorance, deservedly fisked by the Curious Gawker, is breathtaking.

Now, I am not saying that we should be attention hungry on the issue – if the western media chooses to ignore us – so be it. But to me it has been a little intriguing especially after Time magazine dedicated a whole issue recently on India’s so-called resurgance. Also, as mentioned by Confused in one of his comments, this aparent lack of concern should tell us how much Indians and Indian lives really matter to the West. Very little – unless of course, there happens to be a massive flood, earthquake or a natural disaster where they can they can feed their guilt-conscience by sending some tax-deductible charity.

As Manish says:

You’re not American or European or rich, ergo not like us, ergo nobody cares (via)

Before I finish up here, one of the best posts of the day in reaction to the events in Mumbai, particularly on the possibility of communal violence and also how we should react.

UPDATES: 1. Sepia Mutiny has a post about the lack of participation from the American blogosphere. One (anonymous) US blogger has defended him/herself by saying there was nothing new in terms of opinion for them to add ! Such logic did not stop cloned posts parroting the ‘we are all Londoners today’ and such on numerous blogs around the same time last year.

Again, I am not downplaying the London bombings – all types or forms of terrorism are equally henious. Just seems to me that some acts of terrorisms are less henious than other.

2. Xeni Jardin links to the Sepia Mutiny post at Boing Boing, throwing the question to a wider audience – rather pointless IMO. Response, so far, has been sparse.

3. Finally, BBC covers the blog coverage of the Mumbai blasts – mentions Ultrabrown, Sepia Mutiny and others but does not link to any of the blogs ! Also, no mention of the good work done by Mumbai Help.

Another UPDATE: Now New York Times has an inane article that implies that the bombs were meant for the well-off in Mumbai.

Tags: Mumbai blast, Mumbai, Media, MSM, Blogs, Terrorism

Terrorism in Mumbai

Most of you are probably aware by now – cowardly terrorists have stuck again in Mumbai. There has been seven explosions on local trains at various stations on the western line. The latest updates say about 100 dead and more than 400 injured.

Phone lines to Mumbai are expectedly busy – I was able to get in touch with my sister after trying for an hour. She said some incoming lines are working but they are unable to call/sms anyone. Mumbai Help has a post where people are trying to help each other out in getting touch with relatives and friends in Mumbai. This is probably the best place to get updates and news – even for people in Mumbai – if you have a working net connection, the blog is trying to update information on road traffic and help-centers.

This incident is quite terrible. The nature of the attacks – coordinated explosions, high-intensity explosives ( the train compartments have been ripped off and the roof was blown off at one of the stations), striking at heavily populated commuter lines during rush hours – all show signs of al-Quaeda inspired Madrid and London-style bombings. But before we can begin the analysis of who was responsible and how to react – we should let the dust settle, and most importantly, get help as fast as possible to those who need it – right now.

Unfortunately and sadly, some people are already putting their favorite spin on the incident – political or commercial. Instapundit is furiously linking to pro-Bush (or anti anti-Bush) blog posts and going at this from an anti-liberal angle; both Gaurav Sabnis and Amit Varma mention how Rajdeep Sardesai of IBN-CNN is continuously taking credit about being the " ..the first to report these blasts."

Once again – please go to this blog if you need help or can help in any way.

Updates:

1. It is heartening to hear a sane statement coming from a politician in place of the usual rhetoric and empty sympathy. According to Gaurav Sabnis:

Sharad Pawar made a very sensible comment – "The Railway Minister, Home Minister and others may want to visit the site and the victims. And it is a natural reactions. But when VIPs visit so soon, it is seen that the attention of doctors and other staff at hospital goes more into looking after the VIPs. And the victims suffer. So my appeal to VIPs is not to visit the victims so soon."

2. Wonder how he kept a straight face while making this statement:

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf offered condolences over the loss of life, the Foreign Ministry said, adding: "Terrorism is a bane of our times and it must be condemned, rejected and countered effectively and comprehensively."

3. Just got back home and switched on CNN – had to wait about twenty minutes before any mention was made about the Mumbai blasts. There was approximately four minutes of coverage – most of it included an analysis about the importance of Mumbai train system using Google Earth (something I could have done on my computer) then switching over to a story about security increase in New York City subway (which is not under any direct threat) for another two minutes. On CNN Headline News, they made it sound as if the latter was the major story.
Still, the shots of carnage were horrific.

Tags: Mumbai, Bombay, Mumbai blasts, Mumbai train explosions, terrorism