What about your Bush?

One of the most frustrating things in India is that you usually cannot have logical discussions. Somehow most of the Indians are convinced that they are superior to every other culture. Most of the front pages in newspapers are filled with glowing stories how well the country is doing. There will be few meaningful articles, but they are usually hidden in the middle pages and probably people brush them aside. Like the one on the Scarlette Keeling murder case in Goa by Brinda Karat, a Member of Parliament titled Don't punish the victim.

Scarlette Keeling was a 15 year old British tourist who was brutally raped and murdered in Goa. Initially, there was a cover up. But after her mother demanded another autopsy it was confirmed that she was indeed raped and murdered. Then all hell broke loose. People started blaming the mother for letting this happen. The Goa government threatened to charge the mother with neglect and put her in jail if she did not disappear. There was this nice discussion in parliament where a Congress MP blamed the mother and his esteemed colleague, the tourism minister who also happens to be a woman said "He has a point".

For the uninitiated and those without any values and lack of culture trying to make sense, here is the logic. The mom gave her daughter freedom. The daughter got drunk and may have had consensual sex and may have had drugs. This caused her to be raped and murdered as expected. Now imagine the gall of the mother to question this.

In India Two wrongs make a right, most of times during discussions. For example I might bring up the condition of the roads in Mumbai and the person I would be discussing this would criticize Condi Rice. I would ask him to forget Condi and steer the topic back to the roads. Then it would get personal and he would ask me if I had a Green Card. I would say yes. Then the person would say I had no business talking about roads in India as I am American. I remember this heated argument I had about former Indian president Abdul Kalam when this person suddenly asked rather loudly "Excuse me but what about your Bush?". My response was an equally angry "Pardon me". It took a couple of seconds to figure out he was talking about "my" president.