Brown Pundits – Page 321 – A discussion of all things Brown..

Tea Party Zindabad

Brown Pundits Archive · June 11, 2014 · Comments Off

We are not ideological enough to be termed left-liberals but we are compassionate enough to start feeling sorry for the coconut people. They are getting thrashed everywhere in the polls and how. In each case the victories (defeats) have been correctly described as historical.

In India the LLs fought hard against a chai-wallah’s son. They wrote passionate letters to the Guardian. They formed voter advisory groups who pointed out how best to carry out tactical voting against the BJP. Their campaign was so effective that even a business-focused mag like the Economist urged Indians to vote against Modi. They still lost.

In UK/Europe the LLs went up against the UKIP and other far-right forces. The only defeat that they could claim was that of mad-man Geert Wilders of Holland (who in effect promised that Moroccans will be kicked out of the country). And in Greece the anti-austerity left won as the people are facing extreme hardship (by western civ standards). Everywhere else, the liberal-left was badly crushed.

Now in breaking news from the land of the free, we have a grand Tea Party upset- Eric Cantor, the Republican Leader (#2) in Congress, dethroned by a college professor!!! What must really hurt is the fact that Profs are overwhelmingly left-lib, however David Brat is an econ prof.

Eric Cantor is clearly no darling of the left. But of late, the LLs have been quite optimistic about the demise of the Tea Party and a swing back to the middle (from the devastation of 2010). Indeed, there were tell-tale signs that Cantor would help out in the legalization of (Hispanic) migrants. The LLs just did not imagine a Tea Party victory of this magnitude (just as everyone failed to anticipate an outright BJP majority). Now no Republican would dare move forward (left-ward) on the Dream Act.

How will Arundhati Roy (as the leading thinker in the world) respond to this global Tea Party take-over? The familiar angle to explore is how minorities will suffer- in India there are already communal incidents flaring up from Haryana to Maharashtra. In Europe the fire will be directed against muslims as well. And in the home of the brave it will be Hispanics that will face the mood music. But all past battles have been waged and lost on this ground and we are not sure of the efficacy of her high-voltage campaigns (and silver tongue) going forward.

If General #1 is no good, will the Left-Libs be able to find other strong (and smart) voices to guide them in these dark days? Our opinion is that they enlist the services of Dr Omar Ali of Brown Pundits. We are sure that they will not be unhappy with results.
………

There’s not too much happening tonight — oh, apart from two fun
races that will be analyzed and over-analyzed and then analyzed some
more for signs of Tea Party fever.

UPDATE: If I were a prouder man, I’d delete my first
line about how much was happening tonight. Obviously, quite a lot is
happening: Eric Cantor, who was all-but-assured to become Speaker of the
House when the gavel grew too heavy for John Boehner, has lost his
primary. He has lost it resoundingly, losing by huge margins in rural
parts of the district, losing even in population centers like Henrico
County (the Richmond suburbs).

It’s a historic defeat. Not since the 2004 defeat of Tom Daschle has a
party’s congressional majority leader lost an election; I’m still
struggling to find a case where a majority leader lost a primary.
And while I covered David Brat’s race against Cantor a few times, I
joined the vast majority of journalists in assuming Cantor would take
this. After all: He seemed to spot the voter unrest early on, and he
spent nearly $1 milllion in the final weeks, while Brat struggled to
spend six figures.

How did this happen?

…
Immigration reform. Yes: Eric Cantor managed to be
sunk by immigration reform without even bringing a bill to the floor.
Like John Boehner, Cantor reached out to pro-reform groups and was seen
by the GOP base as open to some eventual bill. This riled activists and
opinion leaders like the radio hosts Mark Levin and Laura Ingraham.
“Eric Cantor is an ally in the biggest fight that will occur in the
next six months in Washington,” Ingraham said at a weekend rally for
David Brat, “and that is the fight over immigration amnesty.”

……….

Link: http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/06/10/the_official_live_thread_of_the_south_carolina_and_virginia_primaries.html

…….

regards

Comrade Tariq Ali comments (not)

Brown Pundits Archive · June 10, 2014 · Comments Off

I have not seen any comment from comrade Tariq Ali for a while, but there is a hashtag on Twitter called #HowNotToEliminateTaliban and @hussainjahanzeb tweeted about that:

#HowNotToEliminateTaliban By reading Tariq Ali and thinking they are just anti-imperialist freedom fighters.

That tweet reminded me of a press release I composed in honor of Tariq bhai. With minimal editing, I reproduce it here for those who may be missing the wisdom of the great man:

“A pre-revolutionary situation appears to be developing in Pakistan. The proletariat, long suffering under the yoke of neo-colonial exploitation, has begun to stir. Identifying the US as the head of international capital, the working class is ready for a complete overthrow of the oppressive system. In Peshawar, samizdat texts smuggled across the border under the noses of CIA-trained security forces are already circulating in the barrios. Relatively sophisticated elements of the ruling classes, fearful of losing their grip, but unable to rely on American tanks and drones in the dense urban landscape of Peshawar, are trying to pre-empt the revolution by installing a Kerensky-like figure in Islamabad. Others anticipate a turn towards terror even as they prepare Thermidor while checking the balance in their Swiss accounts. American “advisers in the fortress-like American embassy still believe that the jackbooted thugs of the puppet Sharif regime will be able to hold off the revolutionary surge.
Meanwhile the young men (and women; contrary to Western stereotypes, women are an important behind-the-scenes component of the Islamist militias now being organized in working class neighborhoods) are moving on from the sometimes simplistic anti-imperialism of the Taliban; Islamic socialists will soon insert class and gender issues into the emerging debate. With the capitalist media increasingly discredited by their association with the White Russian forces in Afghanistan, these new voices may suddenly emerge on Friday to announce to the world a new dawn of hope. Aging revolutionaries across the globe may yet see that light burst forth from a region presented by FOX news and the New York Times as the heart of darkness. But the revolution will need our support as the forces of reaction in London and Washington attempt to land troops on the borders of Islamic soviets under the guise of protecting human rights and bourgeois democracy. Massive civil disobedience in Western capitals will be the only way these interventions can be thwarted. Let us not be found wanting.”

Hilary, ISI and Osama

Brown Pundits Archive · June 10, 2014 · Comments Off

Snippets of interest from “Hard Choices” the book tour that will allow Hilary to make the next hard choice – to run for a two-term president (with daughter Chelsea waiting in the wings). Eventually Americans will tire of electing Clintons (hopefully), at that point they can chose available members of the Bush family.

“I had invested considerable time and energy in the Pakistan
relationship over the years, and I knew how offended they would be if we
did not share this information with them. But I also knew that elements
in the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, maintained ties to the
Taliban, al-Qaeda, and other extremists”

The story behind the Kill Osama Elect Obama story.
……………………

The US decided not to inform Pakistan about its top-secret mission to
kill Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad as it knew that elements in the ISI
maintained close ties with the al-Qaeda and the Taliban, according to
former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In her memoir Hard Choices, which hit book stores today, Clinton
says that top US officials, including President Barack Obama and the
then Defense Secretary Robert Gates, had detailed discussions on the
issue including the possibility of Pakistan using the occasion to launch
an attack on India.

But finally it was decided not to inform Pakistan.

“Our relationship with Pakistan, America’s nominal ally in the fight
against terrorism, was already very troubled. If the Pakistani military,
always on a hair trigger out of fear of a surprise attack from India,
discovered a secret incursion into their airspace, it was possible
they’d respond with force,” 66-year-old Clinton writes.

“We had debated whether to inform Pakistan about the raid ahead of time
in order to avoid this scenario and the complete breakdown in relations
that could follow. After all, as Bob Gates often reminded us, Pakistani
cooperation would continue to be needed to resupply our troops in
Afghanistan and pursue other terrorists in the border region,” she says
in the book.

“I had invested considerable time and energy in the Pakistan
relationship over the years, and I knew how offended they would be if we
did not share this information with them. But I also knew that elements
in the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, maintained ties to the
Taliban, al-Qaeda, and other extremists,” Clinton writes.

“We had been burned by leaks before. The risks of blowing the whole
operation were just too great,” said the former Secretary of State, who
is considered as a strong potential presidential candidate for the 2016
elections.

Bin Laden was killed in the garrison town of Abbottabad on May 2, 2011,
in a covert raid carried out by the Navy SEALs on a special order issued
by President Obama.
………….

Link: http://www.outlookindia.com/news/printitem.aspx?843921
…………

regards

Britain responsible for Taliban-led atrocities

Brown Pundits Archive · June 10, 2014 · Comments Off

This is what brown liberals (aka coconuts) have been saying for some time and who knows, there may be some truth in it after all. It is well documented that South Asians are unable to govern themselves responsibly, we do not have the tools to finish the job. The British as our colonial masters should have educated us on the specifics of managing a liberal democracy (as opposed to the divide and rule policies and the free trade for me but not for thee policies and the food for british soldiers alongside mass starvation for native civilians policies and the… you get the idea).

Presently in our discussion of tools and British responsibility we have something a bit more specific in mind and which concerns a massive fraud that has been effected in the present. We frequently see such bomb detectors in operation and we are unhappy (but unsurprised) to know that they do not work (we are under the impression that sniffer dogs work very well but that may not be an appropriate suggestion for Pakistan).

Thus the fact that more of us are not dead from terrorist attacks is not because the security is so efficient, rather the terrorists are simply exhausted by the demands of the job. Now that is a comforting thought.
…….
It is is one of the world’s most obvious terrorist targets. So how
did a group of 10 militants armed with guns, bomb vests,
rocket-launchers and grenades get into Karachi’s Jinnah airport? Part of
the answer, incredibly, may lie in the fact that Pakistani security
personnel still guard the outer perimeter using versions of the phoney
bomb detector sold by the convicted British conman Jim McCormick.

McCormick’s
device, which he called the ADE 651, was itself a variation of a common
design. Essentially, a telescopic radio aerial is attached by a hinge
to a plastic handgrip. When used by a “properly trained” operator, who
must first sensitise it to the “molecular frequency” of explosives, it
was supposed to point out bombs by swinging towards them.

In fact, all this was nonsense.
The aerial swings because of unconscious movements by the operator,
known as the ideomotor effect – the same thing that gives rise to the
common belief in dowsing. Nevertheless, McCormick and other fraudsters, such as Gary Bolton, exported thousands to clients around the world, including in Iraq and Pakistan. Less ambitious criminals used to sell them as golf ball detectors in the 1990s.

Like dowsers, though, many security personnel continued to keep the
faith. In 2010, even after McCormick had been charged with fraud,
Pakistan’s Airport Security Force admitted to the Dawn newspaper that they were continuing to use a device of their own design that operates on the same principle.

Iraq, which had been McCormick’s largest market, still uses them too,
despite repeated warnings. In 2009, the New York Times confronted bomb
squad commander Major General Jehad al-Jabiri with evidence of the ADE
651’s fraudulence, yet he insisted that it was effective, saying:
“Whether it’s magic or scientific, what I care about is it detects
bombs.” In 2011, al-Jabiri was charged
and later jailed for – of all things – taking bribes from McCormick.
And still the ADE 651s were being used, as recently October 2013.

At the same time it was apparently common to find Beirut security guards still scanning cars for explosives with an ADE 651, or something similar. And there are reports of other devices being used in the south of Thailand.
Indeed, according to Detective Sergeant Steve Mapp, who led the
investigation into McCormick, some people’s belief in the ADE 651 is
almost unshakeable. As he told Business Week, “In Kenya they said, ‘No, we know about Mr McCormick’s conviction, but we’re really glad we’ve got them – and they do work.'”
…….

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2014/jun/09/fake-bomb-detectors-british-conman-pakistan-karachi-airport
…….

regards

Cold storage horror

Brown Pundits Archive · June 10, 2014 · Comments Off

And while the military was trying to break-down the cold storage walls, did anyone think of switching off the power to the facility? Probably it would not have mattered, the poor folks were probably long gone before anyone noticed.

To an outsider this all looks like Pashtun nationalism fighting for its version of “pure lands for pure people,” not dissimilar to the earlier movements by Sikhs, Muslims (and even Hindu groups) in the sub-continent.

The only problem is the access to the sea from Peshawar (Khalistan maps used to show a corridor from Punjab to sea- via Karachi). Thus the Pashtuns have decided that they will keep their lands AND re-create Pakistan in their own image.
………
At least seven bodies were recovered in the early hours of
Tuesday morning from Karachi airport’s cold-storage facility, DawnNews
reported.

The rescue operation continued nearly for 28
hours. The rescue workers finally broke down three walls of the
cold-storage facility to retrieve the victims.

Meanwhile, talking
to media persons Sindh Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed said that the
corpses were immediately shifted to Jinnah Hospital for DNA tests in
order to identify them, after which they would be handed over to their
relatives.

Ahmed said that the bodies were badly burnt and were
beyond recognition and the process of identification would take three
weeks time.

He added that if the deceased could not be identified, they would be buried after being provided temporary identification.

One of the Airport Security Force (ASF) personnel was still missing, Ahmed claimed.
According to sources, the deceased were employees of a private cargo company.

Due
to the fact that Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) lacked heavy machinery,
many prominent social workers voluntarily sent cranes to rescue the
victims.
The army also assisted in the recovery of bodies in the rescue operation.
The deceased had taken refuge in the cold-storage facility to escape the carnage where they were earlier trapped.

“We
are looking into this and according to the families some seven people
were trapped inside the cold storage and were in contact with the
families on cell phone,” said Abid Qaimkhani, a spokesman for CAA.

Earlier last night, the families of seven airport workers had blocked Shahra e Faisal demanding that authorities work towards freeing their relatives who were trapped.
……….

Link: http://www.dawn.com/news/1111784/seven-bodies-recovered-from-karachi-airports-cold-storage-facility
……..

regards

Karachi Airport (repeat attack)!!!!

Brown Pundits Archive · June 10, 2014 · Comments Off

TTP has claimed responsibility for the latest attack. They have become completely brazen (also what is this obsession with planes??).
…….
Attackers managed to flee as a heavy contingent of security forces
reached Airport Security Force (ASF) camp number 2, which came under a
fresh attack on Tuesday, DawnNews reported.

Flight operations resumed
after being temporarily suspended.

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan
(TTP) claimed responsibility for the second attack near the Karachi
airport. A security sweep and search operation is underway at the ASF
academy, which is located in Bhitai Abad, Pehlwan Goth.

Inter-Services
Public Relations (ISPR) spokesperson Asim Bajwa posted on Twitter that
the “chase is still on”. “Three to four terrorists fired near ASF camp,
ran away. No breach of fence, no entry.Chase is on, situation under
control,” he posted, soon after the attack.

Deputy Director
General ASF, Colonel Tahir Ali said there were no casualties in the new
attack. He also said the the airport is secure at that operations have
resumed. He said that two attackers opened fire near the ladies hostel
near D gate, which is located behind the ASF camp. “The ASF checkpost is
about 100 metres from the scene. We were informed of the incident by
our sentry posted there,” he said.

Heavy firing was reported at
the ASF camp in the metropolis on Tuesday after unidentified men entered
the premises. Initial reports suggest that the number of attackers
could be between four and seven.

DawnNews reported that explosions
were also heard, causing panic among citizens in the vicinity. The
Director General of Rangers has reached the site to oversee the
operation.

…..

Link: http://www.dawn.com/news/1111791/attackers-flee-karachi-asf-camp

…..

regards

Modi-Sonia combo for women’s lib

Brown Pundits Archive · June 10, 2014 · Comments Off

Hinduism teaches us that God is half man half woman (unfortunately, this does not quite meet the feminist threshold set up by brown liberals) – ardha-narishwara – combining the masculine (purush) and feminine (prakriti) energies of the universe.

The larger than life presence of Sonia (dynasty) and Modi (hindutva) in Indian politics is frankly bothersome for us. If India must have a future as a (flawed but improving) democracy she should be ruled by non-communal left/right (-of-center) parties (ideally with alternate party rule every five years- the so-called Kerala model). Highest votes for the best governance should be the motto.

In the short term, the focus must also be to win the vote by showing what you can do for
women. We do not have to look afar. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have shown
the way, India just needs to follow.

That said, you go to battle with the army you have. The first step initiated by Modi (and supported by Sonia) on the Women’s Reservation bill is a hopeful sign. We look forward to many more of such initiatives.
…..BJP,
Congress and Left had joined hands to get the women’s reservation bill
passed in March 2010 but it has since languished because the UPA
government could not get past the resistance of SP, BSP, JD(U) and RJD
who insisted on reservation for OBCs and Muslims within the larger
gender quota
Mukherjee also said the government
will work to ensure that by 2022, every family has a “pucca house with
water connection, toilet facilities, 24×7 electricity supply and
access”.
……
…..
….
The President’s speech was a bouquet of beautiful (if familiar) words, there must be now be consistent action and accountability.
…………..
Pushed
to the backburner for the last four years, the women’s reservation bill
appears closest now to being passed with the Narendra Modi government
expressing its commitment for 33% reservation for women in Parliament
and state assemblies.

Spelling out the Modi government’s agenda
in his address to the joint sitting of Parliament, President Pranab
Mukjerjee said on Monday, “My government recognizes the important role
our women play in the development of our society and growth of the
nation. It is committed to providing 33% reservation to them in
Parliament and state legislative assemblies.”

While similar
resolves for women’s quota in legislatures were expressed in the past as
well, the fresh pledge sounds credible both because of BJP’s absolute
majority in Lok Sabha as well as the near-rout of SP, BSP, JD(U) and RJD
who vetoed the implementation.

Stressing that women’s welfare
will be one of the thrust areas for the new government, Mukherjee
announced the launch of a country wide ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ (save
girl child, teach girl child) campaign to save the girl child and
enable her education and prevent crimes against women by strengthening
the criminal justice system.

He also put the challenge of
communal violence on the same footing as terrorism, extremism and crime,
stressing that the government would follow a “zero tolerance” approach
towards all. “A national plan will be chalked out in consultation with
the state governments to effectively curb incidents of communal violence
and the challenges posed by left wing extremism,” said the President
BJP,
Congress and Left had joined hands to get the women’s reservation bill
passed in March 2010 but it has since languished because the UPA
government could not get past the resistance of SP, BSP, JD(U) and RJD
who insisted on reservation for OBCs and Muslims within the larger
gender quota.

….Though
the Modi government can get the bill through the Lok Sabha on its own
steam, its task will be made that much easier because of the support
from Congress and Left. In fact, Congress president Sonia Gandhi thumped
her desk in approval when the President listed protection of women
among priorities of the new government.

About the ‘Beti
Bachao-Beti Padhao’ campaign, the President said, “It will structure a
comprehensive scheme, incorporating best practices from states in this
regard.”

The President was speaking against the backdrop of a
spate of horrific crimes against women in UP and elsewhere, and he
referred to that. “In the recent past, the country has witnessed some
gruesome incidents of violence against women. The government will have a
policy of zero tolerance for violence against women, and will
strengthen the criminal justice system for its effective
implementation,” he said.

Mukherjee also said the government
will work to ensure that by 2022, every family has a “pucca house with
water connection, toilet facilities, 24×7 electricity supply and
access”.

He also said that the government would set up Lokpal and would spread e-governance.

……

…….
Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Modi-signals-womens-quota-in-Parliament-zero-tolerance-for-riots/articleshow/36315396.cms
…….

regards

Pretty face, ugly words

Brown Pundits Archive · June 9, 2014 · Comments Off

For people who are not too familiar with Thai politics: The people of Thailand
are all too familiar with coup d’etats. There have been at least 18
actual and attempted military takeovers since Thailand became a
constitutional monarchy in 1932. The last one was in 2006
when the military sent tanks onto the streets before ousting then Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the brother of Yingluck, who is now living
in exile to avoid a corruption conviction he claims is politically
motivated.

….
Well certainly not all elites everywhere feel that the working class should be finished and done with.

However it is fair to state that the reaction of Welluree Ditsayabut towards peasants is typical. A real grass-roots democracy will presumably disturb the social order, dominated at present by people such as the forty ladies pictured below.

Elites only condone voting and elections because not to do so would seem vaguely feudal and that is not good for self-image. This they truly believe- benevolent feudalism is the best deal for the down-trodden.

BTW for people who feel (justifiably) that South Asians are held back due to philosophical deficiencies in Hinduism and/or Islam should spare a thought about how (and why) Thailand, a prosperous, Theravada-Buddhist country, is basically a millitary thug-o-cracy (much more so than Pakistan for example).

This much is apparent. Thais (the yellow-shirts) actually would prefer that the beloved king rules with an iron hand so that poor people (the red-shirts) do not get uppity. But the king is old and not fit for purpose. The good old days will never come back.

…….

Miss Universe Thailand
has renounced her title over remarks she made on social media including
one that redshirt activists – supporters of ousted prime minister
Yingluck Shinawatra – should all be executed.

Last month’s military coup
was the latest convulsion in a decade-long conflict between the
Bangkok-based royalist establishment and the rural-based supporters of
Yingluck and her brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Weluree
Ditsayabut, 22, was crowned Miss Universe Thailand last month but
comments she made months earlier soon surfaced, including one on her
Facebook account, referring to the redshirts, which said: “I am so angry
at all these evil activists. They should all be executed.”

A tearful Weluree told reporters that she could not handle the vitriol directed at her on Twitter and Facebook. “I felt under pressure. I tried to improve myself but what I could not stand was to see my mother stressed,” Weluree said.

“I have decided to sacrifice my status as Miss Universe Thailand.”

The
beauty queen also hit back at comments on her looks. “Actually I’m fat,
you animal!” read one post on her Twitter account, which has since been
deleted.
It was unclear whether the first runner-up, Pimbongkod
Chankaew, would replace Weluree as Thailand’s representative at the
global competition, Miss Universe 2014.

…….

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/09/thai-miss-universe-weluree-ditsayabut-twitter-yingluck-execute

……

regards

“Modi’s name was inscribed in Sanskrit”

Brown Pundits Archive · June 9, 2014 · Comments Off

Hafiz Saeed is tweeting that the new Modi govt was the mastermind behind the Karachi attacks. Proof if any was required, that the only master-mind here is Saeed himself.

……..

Times of India (TOI) quoted a tweet as
sample how the accusations against India and Narendra Modi were trending
on social networking site.

The “sample” quoted by TOI reads:
“Breaking News. DG Rangers says Indian made weapons recovered from
terrorists | Modi’s name was inscribed in Sanskrit!”.

As per TOI: Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz
Saeed … took to Twitter to allege that Narendra Modi’s ‘new security
team’ is responsible for the attack on the Karachi airport. Saeed said
that Pakistan knew who the ‘real enemy’ was and called on the Pakistani
government to ‘show some spine’ and ‘end exchange of gifts with India’.

#KarachiAirport is an attack on
Pakistan. Modi’s new security team is behind this act of war by India.
Nation knows the real enemy. — Hafiz Muhammad Saeed (@HafizSaeedJUD)
June 9, 2014.
………..

A few more tweets from the honorable Hafiz:

…

(1) The spectacle at #KarachiAirport is Modi’s plan against Pakistan. Direct response of needless appeasement of new ‘Hindutva’ Government.

5:01 AM – 9 Jun 2014

(2) We condemn horrendous act of terrorism at #KarachiAirport in severe words. Government must end exchange of gifts with India; show spine.

6:28 AM – 9 Jun 2014

……

Link: http://www.firstpost.com/world/karachi-airport-attack-live-hafiz-saeed-blames-modi-1561631.html

……

regards

Roberto, Nehru and Sonali

Brown Pundits Archive · June 9, 2014 · Comments Off

In his eyes, her beauty, intelligence, grace and, not least, her wondrous enigma incarnated the very soul of India.

As we all know, Bong girls are more daring than most (and prettier than most, though personally speaking, we fancy Vidya Balan).

Questions: she was obviously seduced but what gave her courage to jump into the fire feet first and settle down with a rogue? Yes, girls are fascinated by bad boys, but it seems there is something more than meets the eye. Given Nehru’s background and role as a family friend, was it right and proper for him to aid and abet adultery (ho ho ho)? Finally, why did Sonali’s daughter pick up a rigid form of Islam- was it a reaction to her mother’s wayward ways? It would have been nice to hear her speak as well. Finally, dont pay any attention to hand-wringing libs, nice (dull) boys do finish last.
…………

It was the scandal of the ’50s: a doe-eyed
Bengali beauty leaves husband, child to elope with celebrated Italian
filmmaker Roberto Rossellini. But for Sonali Dasgupta, who died in Rome
on Saturday, the love story didn’t have a happy ending.

…

Except for a few months in 1957, when she was thrown in the vortex of
a scandal that made headlines in the yellow press across the world,
Sonali Dasgupta lived her life behind a thick veil of anonymity. Before
the scandal erupted, she led the humdrum existence of a housewife,
resigned, unhappily no doubt, to playing second fiddle to her husband,
Harisadhan Dasgupta, a gregarious, ambitious and talented documentary
filmmaker.

She had studied at Shantiniketan and took a lively interest in Indian culture.

…
But no opportunity came her way to turn that interest into a
vocation. Her lot was to bask in the reflected glory of Harisadhan —
first in Kolkata, where he had founded a film society along with
Satyajit Ray and Chidananda Dasgupta, and later in Mumbai, where he
directed documentaries for the Films Division and for major business
houses.

…
His success allowed him to socialise with Mumbai’s commercial film
industry circles, including, especially, with fellow Bengalis like Bimal
Roy who happened to be a relation as well. It is at a film party, held
in December 1956, that he learnt of the imminent arrival in Mumbai of
Roberto Rossellini, the great Italian film director, to direct, at the
behest of Jawaharlal Nehru, several documentaries, and perhaps also a
feature film, to mark ten years of India’s independence. All that
mattered to him now was a chance to serve as an assistant to Rossellini.
That would be another feather in his cap.

…
But that was not to be since he was in the midst of shooting a film
for a corporate house. So he tried another tack: persuade Rossellini to
hire Sonali to help him write the scripts for his films even though she
had no experience in script-writing.

Nor did she fancy herself in that role.

…
Not that Rossellini, whose marriage to Ingrid Bergman was on the
rocks, needed much persuasion. The very first time that he set his eyes
on Sonali he was seized by a mighty passion to seduce her.

In his eyes, her beauty, intelligence, grace and, not least, her wondrous enigma incarnated the very soul of India.

…
Discomfited yet flattered by the attention Rossellini lavished on her, Sonali succumbed to the charms of the Italian.

…
Her chagrined and outraged husband threw her out of the conjugal
home. Soon two scandal sheets — RK Karanjia’s Blitz and Baburao Patel’s
Filmindia — ran a series of salacious and concocted reports for weeks on
end. That prompted Hollywood gossip columnists to join the fray.

…
Pressure mounted on the government to cancel Rossellini’s visa. It
was Nehru who saved the day. He had known Sonali whom he affectionately
called Monkey.

….
She was given a passport and arrangements were made to dispatch her
to Paris along with her younger son — then a mere toddler. Rossellini
joined her a few weeks later.

…
Not long afterwards they shifted to Italy where she gave birth to a
daughter, opened a fashion boutique that boasted of a high-end
clientele, helped Rossellini in his novel film ventures and got along
famously with his children from his two previous wives. But the idyll
didn’t last long.

…
One tragedy after another marked her final years: Rossellini,
estranged from her, succumbed to a heart attack; Harisadhan, wasted by
drink, died in appalling penury; Gil, her younger son, passed away after
a freak accident. Her daughter, who trained in the theatre, reportedly
embraced a rigid form of Islam and migrated to the Middle East.

…
I met Sonali two days running in Rome while doing research on
Rossellini’s sojourn in India. She was poised, serene, stoic. She spoke
little. But the little she spoke was singularly free of bitterness,
remorse or chagrin. She had fulsome praise for Rossellini’s
accomplishments as a filmmaker. But at the end of our last conversation
she also said with just a hint of irony: “Ask me what it means to live
with a genius.”

…….

Link: http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/talking-terms/end-of-the-roman-holiday/

……

regards