Politicians on Vande Mataram!

The same politicians who can't differentiate between National Anthem and National Song, who can't tell the full name of Gandhi, don't know a thing about where the 'chakra' in the flag comes from & don't know whether Tagore wrote the Rashtriya Geet or Rashtra Gaan are now fighting over Vande Mataram.

Ironically, most of the top politicians of both the Congress and BJP who rake the controversy can't sing even a few lines of either the National Anthem or the National Song. Worse, Media becomes a party in the entire issue and the anchors/journalists who have not even heard about Anand Math, the novel of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya (Chatterjee) from where Vande Mataram (or Bande Mataram, as in Begali) comes, ask foolish questions.

Again on Times Now channel on Tuesday, none of the BJP leaders including the irritating Vijay Kumar Malhotra could sing even a line let alone a stanza of the song. In fact, none except a Rajasthan BJP leader could sing it.

Surely Vande Mataram was not a nationalist song by any means. The novel was slightly pro-British and advocated violence against Muslims. Many other reasons why Subhas Chandra Bose was against it and so was Gandhi, Lohia and most of the prominent leaders. However, it is an important song and can't be discounted either. But better if citizens sing it on their own and not the politicians causing social unrest.

Water turns sweet at Mahim dargah & Idols drink milk in India

I am sick of castigating the news channels. How much will I do. Still I can't help as the Mass Hysteria over Lord Ganesha and other idols sipping milk is spreading fast once again in this country.

It happened ten years ago (September 1995) when there was hardly any impact of electronic media but newspapers did cover it well. Now it is the era of 24 hr live channels that have no qualms about letting people go crazy over superstitions.

For the last couple of days it was the dargaah at Mahim in Mumbai where the water had turned sweet and people were flocking to it. It was perhaps some chemical phenomenon either due to heavy rains or some affluent dischaged in the water that the sourness of sea water went down and water tasted 'sweet' (read normal, not sour). But the media lapped it up. Now it is back to deities/idol's sipping milk all over the country and scenes of pepole from Bareilly to Bandra crying about the miracle relayed live. Callers to channels saying 'Yes it is happening' and 'When Saint of our Muslim brothers can turn water sweet, why can't our Gods drink milk'.