Is this Gandhigiri?

August 16, 2007 Shiv Sena decided to protest against the proposed SEZ and the land acquisition by Reliance. The previous night they started their preparation decorating every corner and lane by red flags, mind you this was still August 15.

Led by Manohar Joshi the former chief minister of Maharashtra they demonstrated their protest on the D day in true "Gandhian Style". They followed the Gandhian principle of not raising their hand but only that. This is 2007 they had done improvisation to the Gandhian Style- they hurled stones, used bamboos and whatever material at their disposal.

They went a step further than the non-corporation . They broke all the glasses of NMMT buses. They vandalised the shops hit the innocent and robbed the elders. Private vehicles windshield were broken because they pay road tax to the government, elders were robbed because they take pension from the government. The former abetting a crime and later took the piece of their booty.

They believed actions speak louder than words and their lewd actions did just that. Protesters jerking their hands near their groin region was their response to a group of girls taking a video of their protest on their cellphone from their flat.

And you couldn't blame them with half a bottle of whisky down their throat everyone gets a little tipsy. "Whisky during protest?", that's not Gandhigiri you say! But you couldn't really blame that they were fighting for a cause and isn't that a reason to celebrate!!! And what could be a better time to celebrate when you see your revolution is bringing the result!

A Konkan Bhavan and CIDCO office vandalised, buses broken. People fainted due to stone pelting, highways blocked windscreen dashed a police jeep burnt and people robbed. Every revolution needs money and blood and this time the innocent provided that.

Surprisingly enough, reliance industries were left untouched after all they are paying them 10 lakh and a job.

And if you think this isn't Gandhigiri sew your lips Shiv Sena thinks so. What a novel way to celebrate sixty years of independence!!!

The price of our freedom - 1

Sixty years ago we won our freedom but we also lost a lot during our struggle. Let us take a moment out of our life to remember what we have lost and our struggle. I am not going to say anything, for the picture says it all. Here is an old mail from my mailbox that expresses it all..... some that was never said and some that was long forgotten.....

Nehru and Gandhi at AICC meeting, July 1946



Mountbatten arrives at Delhi airport; received by Nehru and Liaquat Ali. March 25, 1947


Aug. 15, 1947: Mountbatten swears Nehru in as Prime Minister of India

The price of our freedom - 2

Direct Action Day: Calcutta, Aug.16, 1946.


TRAIN TO PAKISTAN; India 1947. Trains packed with refugees - Hindus and Sikhs headed for India, and Muslims headed for Pakistan - were convenient targets for gangs of killers on both sides of the border. Inadequately protected 'Refugee Specials' were typically stopped, and the occupants butchered, several times in the course of the journey.


The dead - Punjab, 1947