Thursday, December 29, 2005

Terror attack in IISc

News link from a dear friend of mine: Terror attack at IISc, Bangalore; 1 killed, 4 injured. My condolences to the family of Prof. Puri, who was killed in the attack. I sincerely hope that all the injured academecians recover and the perpetrators are caught and put to justice.

This blogger knows one of the victims, Prof. Vijay Chandru from his days at IISc, as his first semester faculty advisor, with a warm heart and resourcefulness. Prof. Chandru went on to set up the Simputer.org with others in the CS-dept. Of course, not joining either Simputer (or better, strand genomics) of BLR --and sticking to the organization he was working in-- was one of the most toughest and painful decisions that this blogger had to make.

According to the following news item: Outstanding Social Scientists/Scientists:Science and Society" award to Prof. Vijay Chandru,

"Outstanding Social Scientists/Scientists:Science and Society" award to Prof. Vijay Chandru

The Hari om Ashram Trust Award entitled "Outstanding Social Scientists/Scientists:Science and Society" award for the year 2003 in the recognition of the outstanding work done has been confereed upon Prof. Vijay Chandru. The award carries a sum of Rs.50,000/- and the citation.


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More links:
Abinandanan, a Professor from IISc has the following to say: Terrorist attack in IISc (link via DDD).

IndiaUncut has the following to say: From HITTs to LISTs? and has the following theory, which classifies possible targets of terror attacks: Soft targets for hard terrorists and also the following: Terror, and the game we love.
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PS: A very strongly worded editorial from Indian Express: Congress’s software (link via secular-right).
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Upadate(01/02/06): Subbu says

Prof Chandru is recovering fine. His operation on the shoulder was successful. Another operation would be required in a couple of weeks. Two bullets hit him.

4 comments:

sj said...

I completly agree with the editorial from Indian express - Congress's software . There is no safety in numbers, statistics lie. Don't believe it, look no further. Glaring example of how being a majority is a curse.

Not sure what these perpetrators hope to achieve. This is one of the worst forms of protest, if that is what this is.

ramakrishna u said...


This is one of the worst forms of protest, if that is what this is.

Yes. Also, this is a fight between an extreme form of monotheism and tolerance.

The following excerpt from an article of Thomas Friedman on NYTimes maybe relevant. It was published in July-15-2005 and titled "A Poverty of Dignity and a Wealth of Rage".


Also at work is Sunni Islam's struggle with modernity. Islam has a long tradition of tolerating other religions, but only on the basis of the supremacy of Islam, not equality with Islam. Islam's self-identity is that it is the authentic and ideal expression of monotheism. Muslims are raised with the view that Islam is God 3.0, Christianity is God 2.0, Judaism is God 1.0, and Hinduism is God 0.0.

Part of what seems to be going on with these young Muslim males is that they are, on the one hand, tempted by Western society, and ashamed of being tempted. On the other hand, they are humiliated by Western society because while Sunni Islamic civilization is supposed to be superior, its decision to ban the reform and reinterpretation of Islam since the 12th century has choked the spirit of innovation out of Muslim lands, and left the Islamic world less powerful, less economically developed, less technically advanced than God 2.0, 1.0 and 0.0.

sj said...

I don't want to turn your blog into a Religion basher platform, but case in point to what Friedman has to say is well documented:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_money


In Saudi Arabia, when a person has been killed or caused to die by another, the prescribed blood money rates are as follows:

100,000 riyals if the victim is a Muslim man
50,000 riyals if a Muslim woman
50,000 riyals if a Christian man
25,000 riyals if a Christian woman
6,666 riyals if a Hindu man
3,333 riyals if a Hindu woman.

ramakrishna u said...

In Saudi Arabia, when a person has been killed or caused to die by another, the prescribed blood money rates are as follows:

Well, they are intolerant. May God give the law-makers wisdom!

We cannot expect that humans would conquer mankind's greatest enemies fear and hate overnight. Also we have to remember that justice/law are temporal. They surely will change.