From shadows to the stars

A call to chop someone's head off. Another wants criticism to be punishable by severing the criticizer's finger. Public floggings. Indoctrination camps for children. Women forced to wear a certain kind of clothing. When I speak of these things, what comes to your mind? Is it the Taliban? Or ISIS? Maybe Al Qaeda too, but they've gone out of fashion a bit, don't you think? I think you will agree, dear reader, that this indeed was the case. My first paragraph made you think of the Taliban and the ISIS. But, no. Not one of these threats was made by an Islamic extremist organisation. All of them were made by various persons linked - directly or indirectly - to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Those making these threats ranged from spokespersons to an occupant of the Chief Minister's chair. Naturally, there has been some outrage regarding these statements.  Has Amu the Bjp office bearer & wannabe ISIS flag bearer in India been arrested yet? Thrown out o...

It is my belief that most films that begin with "American" in the title are bad ones. American Beauty, American Pie (all gazillion parts) and my least favourite: American Sniper. Set during the American occupation of Iraq, the movie's protagonist is (predictably) an American sniper. It is based on the story of Chris Kyle, an Iraq war veteran (and most likely a psychopath too). This movie was released in 2014. You might be wondering why I have brought it up now. I was reading Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem" the other day when a passage reminded me of the movie. "Hence the problem was how to overcome not so much their conscience as the animal pity by which all normal men are affected in the presence of physical suffering. The trick used by Himmler – who apparently was rather strongly afflicted with these instinctive reactions himself - was very simple and probably very effective; it consisted in turning these instincts around, as it were, in ...