18 September 2009

India's Cattle have Class!

First of all, "Cattle Class" is a very common term used by many people
in many cultures and it is apparent India needs to wake up and lighten
up, since many don't even seem to have heard this term before.

The BJP thinks this is deplorable and the situation is "ominous"
because China is showing intent of transgressing our border!!! That
measures the BJP's knowledge of world affairs rather well, doesn't it?
Their spokesperson hasn't even heard of the term "cattle class" but
they know what China is up to! Never mind that the success of their
famous "Pokhran 2" has come under a shadow of doubt and could
seriously undermine our minimum deterrent capabilities.

Tharoor, after all, did travel in cattle class, didn't he? Why are so
many monkeys asking for his removal? The question is - should a man's
personal comment that clearly doesn't violate any known law somehow
become the grounds for his eviction from his Ministerial post? It
would be a sad day for India if it did, but then, there have been many
sad days for our great country and more will come as long as we have
these dumb cows in government.

At the bottom of this issue is ignorance, as is with many issues in
India. For some reason, it is perfectly okay for people to travel
worse than cattle in unreserved compartments in trains, on roofs of
buses, stuffing children by the dozen into tiny autorickshaws, making
them carry heavy loads of books, getting shoved and squeezed
physically in all kinds of transportation all over India, but a man's
comment about travelling "cattle class" is evoking so much emotion?
Clearly, when there are people who travel three days on trains,
sitting in the lavatories for the entire journey, we've got our
priorities totally screwed up.

Neither do the people reacting have any familiarity with the usage of
the term "cattle class" and many don't even speak English with any
fluency to be qualified enough to comment about this. But there is
plenty of jealousy, clearly, not about a man capable of making a
comment like this, but the fact that he is familiar with new
technologies, has a distinctly modern lifestyle, and is comfortable in
the age of the internet. Compared to Shashi Tharoor, indeed, many of
our ministers do look like cattle to me. And so do the fools that
vote for them. They deserve to be herded and hounded all their lives
till they find a way to start living and behaving like humans.

Cattle definitely have more class than the treatment humans get in
India. This comment should be a compliment. Look at the mindless
millions that show up in trucks (completely violating transportation
laws) at political rallies, the millions that travel in dangerous ways
on a daily basis, get killed every year by falling in ravines or
getting hit by trains at level crossings, and you'd be lucky to be
with a herd of cattle than with thousands of these poor sods our
country is dying to uplift. Doesn't the BJP think of any of these as
ominous exceptions to their "India Shining" image?

Take a crowded local bus in any city in India and you will know
exactly what being "cattle" is all about. The majority of India does
get herded like cattle in many a public place, being "humped" by
people while standing in queues, oppressed by people who have never
even heard of a deodorant and do not have the common sense to wear
cotton clothes, and having to put up with an obnoxious amount of
physical contact for no reason with complete strangers who think
nothing of shoving other people. And we're offended with a comment on
Twitter?

Please let's get a grip on ourselves. If you can't laugh at Tharoor's
comment, that is your loss, not his. If you haven't heard the term
before, well, now you have. There's nothing to feel offended about
and if your poor, sensitive, selectively depressed, bleeding,
patriotic heart is feeling bad, the man has apologized. You'll have
to find that apology on Twitter as well, but if you didn't go there in
the first place, what the heck are you feeling bad about anyway?

1 comment:

Denkali said...

Well said! Several Congress "leaders" were baying for Tharoor's blood for his moment of levity. Until the diktat from PM-ji which officially classified Tharoor's tweet as a joke. All said leaders now sagely nod their heads, "Yes, yes, what a great joke! Really phunny! Even Manmohan-ji (ROFLMAO) has caught the joke".