If Osama Bin Laden Is Dead; His Ghost Lives

By MOHAN SAHAY


By all available accounts which are reinforced by circumstantial evidence, the most wanted man Osama Bin Laden appears to be a dead man. May be his ghost lives. One does not have to visit Pakistan and Afghanistan for that matter to hunt for the footprint of Osama. A mere re-look at the chain of post 9 / 11 events would suffice to question the existence of Laden.

The sequence:

*Attack on World Trade Tower and Pentagon on 11 September 2001

*Al Qaida takes the responsibility for the attack Bin Laden is the ring leader of the terror attack

*America launches military hunt to what George Bush had said while declaring a war on terror that the USA would smoke Laden out of the whole and he would be brought to justice ‘ dead or alive’.

*Air and ground operation in Afghanistan by the US forces leading to the end of Taliban rule.
Osma fled to the hills and was reported last having been spotted in Tora Bora – the hilly terrain of Afghanistan.

*Heavy aerial attack on Tora Bora that was bombarded by the US Air Force planes to eliminate Laden and his men in the hiding.
It was reported that Laden was killed in the attack but no evidence to buttress the claim.

*Then it was reported that Laden was sick suffering from some serious ailments. He might have died in the winters of 2001 –2002. No evidence again.


This was followed by a lull but the hunt was on. The Al Zazeera broke the silence by releasing an audio tape of Laden that reiterated his resolve to finish the enemy that was the US and its allies declaring them as infidels.

However, the recorded voice of Laden was vague in throwing even small hints about the timing of the recording. Few more tapes were aired but his statements were not clear about the timing. No mention of current events that would corroborate the timing of the voice.

Surprisingly no one has seen any recorded visuals of Laden nor any video tapes were aired by any channel including Al Jajeera of Laden.

The latest visuals aired by the Al Jajeera on the eve of 6th anniversary of 9 / 11 attack showed Laden with his followers and accomplishes including those who commandeered the American jetliners to blow the WTC. It was pre attack days when Laden was wishing the terrorists success in the mission.

The simple question is if Laden is alive why no audio or visuals were released to show that he was still alive and there was reason for Washington and its allies to fear him and his terror outfit? To argue that any such release might be picked up by the US to locate Laden by satellite and air maping of the region is not wholly correct.

In order to prove to the world that he was not dead and that he was alive Laden could have released his recorded visuals from within the confines of four walls. This never happened.

Even at the height of rumour about his death in August last as reported in the French newspaper goes uncontested.

The US has its interest in keeping Laden alive even while he might be dead. This is to keep the pressure on Pakistan to justify the presence of the US forces in Pakistan who are on the mission to end the Laden and his terror outfit.

It also suits the present ruler of Pakistan Gen Parvez Musharraff. So long Laden is alive, he could not ask the US to pull out of the region. Once it is officially confirmed that Laden is dead, the US would be under pressure to pull out his forces from the region. For even if Laden is dead, his legacy of terror would live on.
The US sleuths withdrew from the hunt mission after a hot chase of five years saying there was no trace of Laden in Pakistan or in Afghanistan where he is reported to be in the hiding.

The fight against terror is long and exhausting till the Muslims of the world stop extending logistics support to the terror modules operating in different countries. In order to restore peace and order, the onus is on the Islamic nations and the Muslims at large to stop providing money, arms and shelter to the terrorists who are ought to wreck senseless violence in the world.
ends

Sonia Gandhi Questions Her Own Credence

By MOHAN SAHAY

Kalidas, much before he became a scholar and poet par excellence, was seen one day atop a tree on the bank of a river. As a young lad he had parked himself on the branch facing the tree. He was seen cutting the branch with an axe little knowing that once the branch was cut he would fall into the river along with the trunk. Some passer by alerted him about his folly. Kalidas was quick to realize his mistake.

One wonders, if the most powerful woman of India, Sonia Gandhi realized her mistake by keeping herself away from the ceremonial rendering of Vande Mataram….. the national song on September, 7, 2006 in New Delhi that marked the completion of 100 years of Bankim Chandra’s composition being adopted as the moving spirit behind the freedom struggle.

May be there was no passerby to caution her on the biggest political blunder of her life in her brief emerging career as the leader of the Indian National Congress. No amount of explanation could erase the stigma she attached herself by boycotting the Vande Mataram ceremony.

India,s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh followed her footsteps and preferred to stay away from the ceremony. The two chairs reserved for the Prime Minister and the Congress President were conspicuously vacant at the dais. It won’t add any glory or bring grace to the office of the Prime Minister that Manmohan Singh occupies now in free India.

Again, it can happen only in India that such blatant insult to the national song by no less than a persons like Singh and Sonia Gandhi would go unpunished without inviting national condemnation. As good fortune for Singh and Sonia, the noises made by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the right wing political organization with communal tinge lack conviction. For the BJP’s own credibility as a nationalist party is under cloud with L.K. Advani leading the party. It was Advani after all under whose stewardship the security clearance was given to a private airline which has been raised with the funds of underworld kingpin Dawood Ibrahim. In fact, the BJP has lost all its credibility and is on the decline after Atal Behari Vajpayee left the center stage. Advani, known for his closed jacket mindset is guided by the likes of Venkaiah Naidu for whom politics is nothing more than a joke.

Coming back to Sonia Gandhi, it is said that the lady is surrounded by coterie. She goes by the advice of people who have little or no understanding of political nerve. With power going into the Congressmen’s head, Sonia Gandhi, like any other person of average understanding is easily carried away by the sycophants around her.

Sonia is under illusion that such ‘small acts of omissions’ can harm her politically. Indians may be still graduating in practicing democracy, but the people have never forgiven arrogance and disrespect to the nation despite the adverse socio – political constituency of the country.

Sonia Gandhi’s image is already under clouds for running the government with support of dubious political parties and leaders involved in anti national activities, Persons who are lawbreakers are in the government making law. The terror strikes are taking place at regular intervals without any befitting response from the government. As I write this piece, reports tickled in that yet another blast took place in Mumbai killing more than 50 people.

That some gallop polls conducted of late has placed Sonia Gandhi ahead of any other political leader as a preferred prime minister, may prove misleading, politically speaking. She has bravely faced the storm over her Italian origin. She is an Indian citizen is not in dispute now. But her deliberate act of keeping herself away from the ceremony of the national song is now a historical fact. It would be difficult for her to remove the stain from her career.
She may be able to win elections and may even become prime minister but this act of her – boycott of the national song would follow her like a shadow, which she can’t avoid.


ENDS

Emotions Deceive Rani Mukherjee

Deceptive Emotions of Rani Mukherjee


By MOHAN SAHAY

At times you just can’t camouflage let alone hide your true emotions even while you are acting for a film or drama. Emotions betray you and you just can’t do a damn about it.

This happened to Rani Mukherjee while acting for the much hyped and talked about film Kabhi Alvida Na Kehana. If you have seen the film or intend to see it even for the second time care to read Rani’s acting in the film as she plays the role of a wife who could not care less leave aside loving her man – that is Abhishek Bachan on the screen. She longs for another guy that is Shahrukh Khan on screen and goes all out to betray her husband and give everything to the other man that a woman can give to a man.

However, her tears and sadness for the husband on screen reflects some degree of true emotions as if the person in Rani Mukherjee overtakes the character of Maya in the film. So much so that one is left wondering how Maya who has so much concern (and love) for Rishi is going to desert him for another man.

When Amitabh Bachan is on the deathbed, Rani embraces Abhishek and breaks into his arm crying her soul out again betraying her hidden love for the man albeit on the screen. When she loved the other man Shahrukh, the character of Maya would not be so expressive even while offering condolences to her husband whom she never loved. Rani was deceptive in her role in the film.

Look at the other side of her love for the other man. Whenever she expresses her love for Shahrukh in few intimate shots taken including the one where Maya tenderly touches Dev’s lips with her finger to remove the stain of tomato ketchup. Rani’s expressions were too insipid. The scene demanded otherwise.

May be her emotions for Abhishek in real life were too deep in her mind at the time of the shooting of the film or may be she was wondering why the role played by Shahrkh as the other man whom she had to love and for whom she had to desert Abhishek was not reversed by the producer director. May be she could have offered better expressions true to life as she did in the film Black. At the end Rani ends up betraying her emotions on screen that were illusory.


This is not for the first time that actors have not been able to hide their true emotions while acting on screen. Two examples should suffice.

Those who have seen the magnum opus of Guru Dutt’s Kagaz Ke Phool would recall how Waheeda Rehman while giving a particular scene for the shoot could not hide her true emotions while casting glances at Guru Dutt in the open hood car when the two were out for shooting in the film. Guru Dutt played the role of Director while Waheeda was the heroine of the film on the screen as well. That she was being drawn to Guru Dutt and was falling in love for him was clear and loud in her expressions – no word spoken mind you. In real life too Guru Dutt and Waheeda shared intimate relationship that ended with the tragic death of Guru Dutt at the young age of 39. He had committed suicide in 1964.

The second such play of emotions was visible in film Silsila when Amitabh Bachan and Rekha betrayed their true emotions for each other in the film in intimate scenes. Both were indulging in extra marital relationship on the screen during the period the film was made by Yash Chopra in 1980 – 81 the film world was abuzz with the talk of the affairs between the two then. Incidentally, Jaya Bachan was in the role of Amitabh’s wife – real life situation while Rekha played Amitabh’s flame on the screen not far removed from reality. It is to the credit of Jaya that her performance was superb. May be she had to act and express as a character in the film which was not artificial to say the least.

Had Kabhi Alvida Na Kehana been directed by Guru Dutt, Vijay Anand or Yash Chopra, it would have been an all time great movie. Alas, it was not to be so. Karan Johar is a mediocre filmmaker and director.
Ends.

Anonymous comment posted wrongly on Bismillah Khan article is being pasted below:

Anonymous said...
Though I agree that Rani's role in KANK was not convincing, I think it is more of a reflection of Karan Johar's mediocrity than anything else. What Karan excels in is showing & selling grandeur, that's it! I think, among the five leading lights of the this film, Rani deserved at least the third most powerful role, because Big B & SRK are in a class of their own! Rani's obvious talents have been wasted in this film, where she managed to bag the weakest role of the five!
6:28 PM