Chaos - and spontaneous order - coverage among Indian bloggers - and updates as events unfurl - Yazad and Sameer, among others. Sameer's blog seems to be the hub and there's an interesting discussion on at the comments at his post.

My comment at his report : "when will it end ?"

Sameer's response - "Dina... the end is not in sight... but the beginning of the end will be when the government decides to relieve itself of the kid-gloves that it has donned for so long now. I personally admire the Israeli hadling of terrorism. But that requires an administration with a spine."

My response : "Israel has Big Brother with them. And Big Brother has shown us how absolute power can destroy innocent lives.  Is the question really of having a spineless government or is it one of having too partisan and right-wing a govt ? One can debate many issues here - personal law, different strokes for different folk, priviledges etc. yet we cannot escape the fact that this government is writing new rules - not necessarily to resolve issues - rather to flame them further.

And this is something i fear - a small eg - what this generation of school kids reads in their history books is very different from what i read. Wiping out chapters, slanting them to suit the purposes of their props like the VHP and RSS. And scarier still - the supreme court allows it. 

Give them spine - what next ? Wipe out a whole community in India ? I'm afraid of this - if they used spine to merely wipe out terrorism - thats ok - but we know the issues are much deeper.

In any case - who pays ?"

Yazad jumps in with : "Shocking and depressing news. But hey Sameer, both of us blogged in a kinda similar fashion on this issue! Bomb Blasts in Bombay .... giving more power to the govt is not the solution -- and it might just make the problem worse!"

And Dinesh adds : "First of all, this whole bloody mess is about power and the government. It doesnt matter who comes to power--the killing doesn't stop until the people who generate votes using these are out of action. And hoping for that...is really a long shot."

And Gaurav - ".... what saddens me is that instead of reacting in a mature and determined manner, this is again being used to score brownie points. the BJP is asking for President's rule in maharashtra!!!!!!!!  they should take a leaf out of the book of the American Democrats, and how they behaved after the 9-11 attacks. show unity, solidarity. stick together!! but no, they will blame the government and then call a bandh to cripple our economy"

What interests me apart from the content, is the fact that these are real voices, unbiased by political considerations (unlike many of our 'formal' reporters).  And the immediacy of responding and debating makes it quite special - more real, with fewer filters.  Blogs can talk !!  Can they kick governments too ?

There's going to be much more discussion i know - and i'm following it !

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