The Great Indian Election Drama

We are through so many days in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The first phase, that will cover my state Chhattisgarh, is sceduled on 16th this month. And the drama is on. No one knows who is saying what, to whom and why. One wonders if anyone takes our corrupted politicians seriously. Just a few minutes ago, I was watching Aaj Tak for Bol India Bol programme. At Ranchi most of the people did themselves for the political instability that the they at Jharkhand are facing.

However, classic, and probably most prickly sarcastic, was a real common man's comment when asked what he would do if becomes PM, "सब लोग लूटीये न रहा है? हम भी वही करेंगे, लूटेंगे।" (Every one is looting the people's funds. I will also do the same.) Wonder if any politician really felt the pinch, oe are they the new species of Pachyderms?

No one knows what Varun Gandhi exactly said. Media is also reporting only the he said something. But he is an issue all over. Election Commission itself created a ridiculous history in all dmocracies by advising his party not to make Varun a cadidate! What of Shahabuddins and Surajbhans and Paoppu Yadavs, Honourable Commission Sirs?

There are no issues for the politicians that would really affect the common man. It is all about blame game. One of the weakest ever Home Minister claims to become the strongest PM? A P.M. no one ever heard of speakin on political issues, and those who heard on other issues could not make out what he said, is made out to be the best PM! Tadpoles are trying to be Lions.

There would be more political drama after the elections with strangest of people becoming most vulgar bed fellows, instatntly kicking off there newly found amours.

Let there be peace. Politicians! Do you ever listen to the ground?

Are We Hurrying to End?

There is a genuine concern among the scientists of the world. They know that their experiments in the lab are indicating a clear cut harakiri by the mankind. The sea level has risen double fast, global warming is no more a theoretical problem. Ground water level is going down by the day.

The problem is, bigger players, like the industrialists, politicians and the rich in the richer (a.k.a. developed) states still think they can buy anything with their money. True, what Anartya Sen wrote is right, natural calamities affect the socially and economically backward people more. But, in case of death, there is no money involved. It may come sooner or later for a person but it has to. What industrialists will do with their smoke releasing factories if there is no buyer.

A major problem in fighting already badly damaged environment is that common man is still unaware of the danger. The scientists present the problem in such theoretical jargon that does not concern them. For example, what a farmer in remote Chhattisgarh or Himachal Pradesh is likely to feel about rising sea level?

There is a markable fall in food production, WARMING has started taking its toll, बेर, a common fruit in Indian villages, was not available this season. Weather has become unpredictable. It does not rain in Rainy season, and it is cold in March.

Such issues should be highlighted if something serious is intended to be done.

Pakistan: The Rogue or the Failed State?

The news that is coming out of Pakistan is chilling. For all practical purposes, it has fallen to the taliban. For long, Pakistan has nourished on hate-India policy. Not only for the power seekers but also for the common people, hating India has been the favourite nourishment. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had vowed that Pakistan would eat grass but would for sure make an Islamic bomb, to be used against India was implicit.

Now that they have made their Islamic bomb, they are nearly eating grass. Barack Obama has offered huge assistance to Pakistan to stand on its feet! How ridiculous. Someone who has kneeled down is supposed to stand up?!?!

The tragedy is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons, but no guts (and probably political will also) to protect its nuclear installations and knowledge from falling to hardliners including taliban. Zardari has already said of non-state players active in Pakistan who attacked Mumbai. SWAT has fallen, Karachi is under threat. Can the whole of Pakistan be far behid?

The problem that the world faces is, should Pakistan be let to succumb to its politico-religion based foolhardiness beautifully supplemented by the economic recession? To let open its nuclear installations to rogue hardliners, who are no less than dumbs cutting the branch of tree they are sitting on. Or, should Pakistan be helped out of recession as well as enabling it fight the hardliners? But, will Pakistan ever fight the hardliners? Seems impossible. They have already reached the point-of-no-return. Obama himself has stated that the money Pakistan gets in assistance is used against India. This is a catch 22 situation.

The remedy, one feels, is that a failed Pakistan is a security, nay survival, threat for the whole world. If Pakistan survives it will keep doing what it loves doing best -- hate India. It is better that an international conglomerate, that must include India, under the aegis of the Unitaed Nations should takeover the reigns in Pakistan and do the needfull. If need be, parts of Pakistan be broken merged into neighbouring states like India, Afghnistan, Iran and Russia.

One wonders why the story of Bhasmasur (भस्मासुर) not populaised among the political elite of the world. It tells that if you prop up a demon, it finally kills, or tres to kill, you. Indira and Rajiv Gandhi learnt it the hard way. Taliban (once raised by the US to fight Russia/USSR) is now enemy no. 1 o the US iself. So is happening with Pakistan.

Mr. Obama! Think something more proactive, and more effective. Don't follow the trodden bureaucratic line of solution. Or, just Watch Out.

Jai Ho !

Ultimately, Slumdog Millionaire was a millionaire at the Oscars also. It had to. And, Rahman, A. R. Rahman, bagged two of the Oscars! Pinky also smiled. In all nine Oscars mean a lot. Is it recognition of India's might in the film world? Is it the strength of Indian poverty on film that the world is relishing in highlighting? Is it a sadist award ceremony organised with such a hype?

We heard many disgruntled voices during the building up of Slumdog Millionaire story. It was reported that Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan had refused doing the role Anil Kapoor finally did. Then we heard Mr. Bachchan himself deriding that foreigners come and shoot the poverty of the country and highlight the negative image on films to serve to the sadist appetite of the world. We also had Ms. Shilpa Shetty, all with her megalomania, criticising the same thing in the same way. Ms. Shetty so much as decided to act in a foreign film that would highlight the positive side of India, the Shining India.

What great people. True prodigies of the country. But are they true at heart. I smell something burning somewhere when they open their mouth. Yesterday saw Mr. Bachchan praying for Rahman. What a volte face.

If one wishes to see something common in the two Indian films that won, the positivity is the answer. Slumdog is the story of a slum boy becoming millionaire through a TV show. He knows the answers through his experiences, both good and bad, both sweet and bitter.

Is it the story of deprivation? No way. I feel it is the story of struggle, of hope and perseverance, of denial of defeat, of learning by experience.

Ditto for Pinky Smiles. A small time village girl smiles after some people take up her case. Community living, and sense of oneness? Yes. And a big YESS.

There was some hullabaloo on the term Slumdog. It was not the address of the slum dwellers by the foreigner producers of the film, it is the attitude of our very own resident foreigners. The socio-economic higher strata of India recognises the lower strata by this name.

The nine Oscar Awards to Slumdog Millionaire and Pinky Smiles is the recognition of India's strength, and the strength of its people. We have been proverbial slumdogs and have overcome all odds to snatch from the world a place of honour, place of strength. It is the recognition of India's perseverance.

Jai Ho !

Pub Culture and Religious Hooliganism

There is a new debate going on here. In fact, the debate is old, only renewed lately. Recently some goons attacked the girls having gone to a pub in Mangalore. The goons covered themselves as Ram Sene activists. One wonders why people not having a free bend of mind, and not having the courage to allow others to have free mind, have to adopt the garb of religious activism? We have moral police in Muslim countries, we have the talibanis in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and we have VHP, Ram Sene, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and many similar groups in India. There only job is vandalising the society around them, and only identity is mass/mob hooliganism. They are law unto themselves.
One wonders, again, that is religion only a medium or excuse for some ridiculously absurd or unacceptable act? A Chandramohan indulges in adultery, marries another man's wife, leaves her own, and converts to Islam and becomes Chand Mohammad. Is this the goal of religion? Clerics of all the religions must sit and think.
However, we were talking of a debate. The debate is about whether girls should visit a pub, and whether there is something like pub culture? The question is, should even boys go to a pub? Why governments keep encouraging the culture of alcoholism? This in itself is the root of many evils, and diseases. Is going to a pub, or some similar place, any indication of advancement? It is strikingly amazing that people of both lower and higher socio-economic strata do the same thing and follow the same ethical standards. Both are not ashamed of there alcoholic addiction. Both are not faithful to there spouses. Which is more advanced?
We need to think over as to what set of ethics are we trying to evolve.

Health and Religion: How Low Do We Stoop

Recently, a news cought my attention. It was nothing serious type and probably not blown out of proportion by the political parties, but it had all the potential for it.

The BJP government in MP is making the Surya Namaskar, a set of yogic Asans, compulsory for students in schools. A Muslim clerik was shown denouncing the move as unislamic! Surpriind and shocking, was my reaction.

Simply because an asan is named namaskar, makes it unislamic? As far as I have seen, all the postures of namaz are yogic postures. In fact, most of the religious credo has some scientific logic behind them so that people are benefitted by them. They, in fact, have nothing to dio with religion. If a government order is for good health how can it be blamed? Have we reached a level where everything has to be denounced on one false ground or the other?

I was reminded of a letter written to the editor of the Dainik Bhaskar, Bhopal. The writer, a jain, criticised the government for not disclosing that polio drops consist of human extract, and thereby desacrilaging their religion!

We should now start behaving maturely and stop talking nonsense. Has he time come when we will ask a Doctor whether he follows our believes or not, and then only permit him treatment?

A Nation on Ransom

India was witness to some amazing events in these bad days of looming recession. Satyam fiasco is a shock to all and sundry. One of the most revered companies of the country proved to be misusing the reverence it commanded. One wonder what led the leaders of the company to make such mistakes, and only investigations are likely (really...???) to reveal the truth. Investors of the company are most likely to be shocked.
One is reminded of a childhood story, in which one Baba Kharak Singh (बाबा खरक सिंह) asks the robber of his favourite horse not to tell others that he disguised as a beggar to loot the horse. The reason, people will not rely on beggars then on!
Post-Satyam, who will have faith on big names of India Incorporated?
We also saw oil officers going on strike 'for higher perks'. They are arguably, the best paid PSU personnel in India, even as the PSU staff are the highest paid lot in the governmental set up of the country. They know, they hold the lifeline of an economy. Thus they also know they can wreck the ship anytime. Wish they also knew how to keep it afloat.
And then the transporters. If roads are the veins of a nation, transporters are the haemoglobin. They were hell bent to make a nation patient of anaemia. What transporters demanded was ridiculous. If the diesel prices go up, they add it into their cost and charge their clients accordingly, they never come down. Are they really worried of price hike? Then how much of their income do they really show while filing their service tax returns?
In Chhattisgarh, the rice millers were on strike. No one knows why. Once they had been strike when one of their leaders was arrested for fraudulent behaviour. They do commit all sorts of bungling. Still they want more!!?? More of what?
It appears that any body, which is strong enough to arm twist the system can do it at will, for whatever demands, ranging from ridiculous to filthy. They are least concerned about the problem of others, they relish it for that gives them the leverage to arm twist. Nation? One wonders if they have any concern for it?