Big Arun Bajpai
Gaza flare up between Israel and the Sunni Jehadi terror organisation Hammas is hardly a reason for  some opposition parties including Congress to not allow the Parliament to function for two full days recently  and when the ruling NDA Government did not agree  to single out Israel for the blame ,then to stage the walk out. If these politicians are really worried of the developments in West Asia they should have been discussing what is happening in Iraq to our 39 Indian workers taken hostage by another dreaded Sunni terror organisation ISIS that has close links with Hamas. ISIS is keeping these hostages incognito.
For the current flare up, the trigger was abduction and killing of three Israeli teens under the shenanigans of Hammas in the West Bank on 12 June.  Israel retaliated by detaining more than 200 Palestinians. A Palestinian teen was also killed. This resulted in Hamas resorting to Rocket fire and Israel launching air strikes on 15 July. Israel agreed to an Egypt brokered cease fire on 17 July but Hamas refused and continued escalating its rocket barrages. On 17 July Israel  launched its Ground offensive which continues.
Gaza strip a 360 square km area housing 1.82 million Palestinians and controlled by terror organisation Hamas since 2006 is sandwiched between Israel in the North and Egypt in the South. After the Oslo Accord between Palestine liberation organisation (PLO) and Israel of 1993, Israel unilaterally vacated Gaza Strip and West Bank in 2005 and a Palestine National Authority (PNA) was formed to govern these two areas under PLO. This Accord was between PLO a comparatively moderate and matured organisation whose leader late Yasser Arafat was a great friend of India and Israel. It was not between Israel and ultra radical Hamas which muscled in Gaza in 2005 and which has a declared aim of destroying Israel.
So if Israel got worried it cannot be blamed. After arrival on the scene Hamas has created its bunkers in the most densely populated areas of Gaza. It has been smuggling arms from Iran and Syria. To thwart this Israel has placed a land, sea and air blockade on the Gaza strip. Israel is not alone in this. Egypt a Muslim country has also placed the Blockade on the Hamas from South. Hamas has cached its arms in hospitals, Mosques, Schools and in civilian living areas in Gaza. It has placed its rocket batteries adjacent to these living areas from where it constantly fires rocket barrages in civilian areas of Israel. It has dug in tunnels to get to Israel from where it sends its fighters into Israel to spread terror. For itself Hamas has made a fully protected underground city in its nerve centre at shejaia but has made no underground shelters for the civilian population. This it has done purposely because it knows that in the Israeli retaliation large number of civilians will be killed for which world opinion will go against Israel as it is happening now. This gives lot of political mileage to Hamas.
Even PLO and Hamas were at logger heads for last eight years. Only in June this year they have finally made up to form a unity Government with Hamas ruling Gaza and PLO WEST Bank. Hamas has been declared radical terror organisation by US, Israel, Japan, EU and Canada. Till date it has fired 1400 Rockets. It is a separate issue that most of these Hamas rockets Israel has shot down due to its high tech Iron Dome anti missile system. Nevertheless that cannot be an excuse to dilute the perfidy of Hamas.
Like Israel India also is the most effected nation when it comes to Jehadi terror. By passing a resolution against Israel in Parliament we would be seen standing for Hamas. This current problem is a total creation of Hamas and not by India’s friend PLO. Israel which apart from our major arms and technology supplier has also stood by us in 1998 American imposed sanctions and 1999 Kargil War. In the national interest it is imperative for us to keep Israel in good humour and take no sides. Let us not forget that after withdrawal of Americans from Afghanistan we may well be facing the same problem which Israel is facing now.
More than two weeks have passed still Israel has not been able to get an upper hand in Gaza  due to urban nature of warfare. Meanwhile Israel has lost a record number of soldiers a commodity very dear to Israel. Now Israel is not going to stop till they destroy the Hamas nerve centre at Shejaia. We should be prepared for a long haul and must keep our cool.

Shiban Khaibri
In  a  famous poem  captioned  “Rotian”  by  Nazeer Akbarabadi, 18th century Indian poet, he says,” Jab aadmi  ke  pet main aati hai  rotian,  Phooli  nahin badan main samati hai rotian……… Aankhen pari rukhun se ladati hain rotian…” which converted in simple English would mean as “When loaves fill a man’s stomach right to the brim , he feels puffed up with joy, makes a merry din……loaves or “chapaties” rouse romantic longings.” Every one makes a living primarily for earning bread. One must have bread or “chappaties” at least twice a day to keep body and soul together. Roti may be baked, fried, simple, buttered, stuffed, crisp, and soft and the like, it has the characteristics of satiating one’s hunger. We in India, as per our ancient culture, respect the bread and before eating it, usually remember God and while eating remain silent, serene, relaxed and humble. Showing or expressing anger while eating or readying to eat bread is medically, morally and even religiously an antithesis. Equally important is, not only in an idealistic situation, that any delay in getting it whether at home or outside should not lead to expression of any sort of anger and the saying that “a hungry man is an angry man” is no alibi under which vent to “hungry feelings” be expressed. Again, any level of its quality in making or infusing taste and crispness to it should not lead to a situation of losing one’s discretion and cool, more so by a public representative, read a public servant, who for getting elected to the seat of power and for a superb duty to make laws, getting in return all the respect, enviable position and status, contacts people with folded hands with “all the humility” for votes promising to making their lives all comfortable and magnificently livable. What a travesty that there have been occasions when we have watched leaders feeling psychologically elevated in getting their shoes dusted off by public servants holding responsible positions in full public and media view. We have seen leaders feeling at the top when their feet are touched not on account of reverence but either due to fear or as an act of cheap sycophancy. We have seen leaders trivializing heinous and unpardonable crimes like rape and promising changing of laws under IPC so that “boys are boys ” and that  “they can commit mistakes like rape” should not be hanged.
It shall require reams of paper to illustrate various such disgusting examples of some leaders but coming again to the “Roti”, an MP can lose cool to this extent that he takes a chappati in hand and with anger, under protest tries to push it into the mouth of a catering employee to make him feel that the chappati was sub- standard or not fit to be eaten. The employee does not open his mouth and the bread falls down, the Honb’le MP picks it up again. There were many ways of lodging protest against the “bad food” like lodging peaceful protest with the management of the Maharashtra Sadan, or the best as taught to us by Mahatma Gandhi was not to eat and leave the eating place calmly. In other words, when we do not intend to eat due to any reason and abstain, we do it gracefully. Anger did not give the concerned MP as much of time to see or know that the victim of his wrath was observing a fast and he happened to be a Muslim. Take any conflict in the family, in the society and anywhere, it has in one form or the other, roots in anger. In chapter 2, verse 63 in the Holy Gita, people are cautioned against and directed to shun anger as “anger gives place to complete delusion and delusion leads to bewilderment of memory and bewildered memory leads to losing of intelligence and discretion and that leads to one’s downfall.”  In such a situation, when unwarranted outbursts of anger should   not only be condemned but as per law, action should also be taken instead of blown out of proportion in some sections of the media which is quite unfortunate. Wide publicity through long bouts of TV debates, accusations, casting aspersions, putting allegations, counter allegations  lead us to nowhere excepting creating ill will and mistrust amongst the people. Every body’s duty is to contribute to and strengthen peace and confidence among all sections of the society. Besides whole of the world watches such hype of unwanted issues on some TV Channels stretched for long hours which puts the whole of the country in bad projection. What sort of a service is this and who benefits out of it all ?
In a post poll scenario when the vanquished have taken home the best spoils of the electoral fight, political scores seem to be settling through exploiting religious sentiments albeit such ugly incidents. Please stop it. Do we not, as a set precedence, avoid naming religions, religious places, arousing religious passions, and religious victims and even religious offenders in case of troubles with a noble aim to maintain and strengthen peace and trust in the society and do nothing to incite passions. Then why should there be avoidable irritating long debates and discussions on some private TV Channels punctuated with airing of the video clips of the incidents?  In my view if the Shiv Sena MP allegedly broke law of the land by trying to force eat a catering employee the chappati who turned out to be on fast, thus unwittingly and perhaps unknowingly hurting his religious feelings and committing a crime, those in the political and media circles who hyped the matter too much, should introspect whether they did it right. Undoubtedly, they did not. The concerned MP is on record as having said that, “I did not know the person’s name, caste or community; I came to know that the employee was a Muslim only after seeing TV footage and I regret it.” Many reactions against the unwarranted act coming from many known political personalities should have been avoided as they should know that they can get counter reactions for many   incidents similarly condemnable and which can only create a chain of countering accusations. These weaken us which we cannot afford. Take the recent case of Sania Mirza. The statement of a local BJP leader and mind you, not from any national leader, calling her “Bahu of Pakistan” but acclaiming the pride which she has brought to the country as a star Tennis player of world fame, should engage hours of frivolous TV debates and projection of victim hood on the basis of religion, all indulged in under freedom of media, is unacceptable especially after the Party disapproved of the statement of that local leader. Drawing an analogy with the iconic figure like Amitabh Bachhan as a brand ambassador of Gujarat is wrong as he did not accept a penny as against Sania taking or agreeing to take Rs.1 crore. She should either return the money or donate it for the welfare of the poor and needy women of the country.
The question again arises that some of our elected representatives think that they are a special category to be looked after very specially and to be treated very specially. Some perhaps think they are above law and could even publicly humiliate or even slap a senior public servant and perhaps go scot-free. Some think that they can speak any thing against any one, even against an exiled community as a whole, yet feign to be humane and “secular”. Why should these honourable people not think that they are just servants of the public and not their bosses like in colonial rule?  Why should  they have comfortable costly cars, spacious bungalows, fat salaries, cheap and highly subsidized food and other perks which all come from the tax money ordinary people dish out and that they should not  care for  these very ordinary  peoples’  respect and prestige  cannot go along any longer. Such netas need to change their mindset.