I was pretty surprised to see the news of the Pune blast on the homepage of NY times yesterday. The article claimed that these are the first major attacks after Mumbai attacks in 2008. I wonder what makes attacks major or warrants attention in western media. Nobody seems to be bothered by attacks in the north east. Is it because they did not involve foreigners or there was no proximity of any shabad house? Are the lives of Indians and attacks on their religious places inconsequential?

Today the article has added this sentence “Any sign of Pakistani attack would worsen relations between the two nuclear rivals and further destabilize a region overshadowed by war in Afganistan.” Now-a-days, the ‘nuclear rivals’ has become a necessary phrase whenever the US media talks about India or Pakistan. It is amazing how none of the other nations with nuclear warheads are ever mentioned in this manner when a conflict arises on their land or of their making. Why this obsession of again and again mentioning the n word? Is this the age old strategy of a media hype followed by a US intervention I am seeing in making?

I also wonder how people/media conveniently forget to mention that US which at present is responsible and actively involved in military conflict in at least two contries itself has nuclear warheads.

PS: Sakal, a local newspaper in the state of Maharashtra reported that Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Mike Mullen said that countries of the world should intervene to smooth relations between India and Pakistan. I know there must be something lost in translation from English to Marathi and then to English. But you can’t deny that it fuels my fear about US intervention. I am trying to find the original quote in English but haven’t found it yet.