Every year, different state Governments and Central Government departments and undertakings come up with tableaus on different topics at the Republic Day parade.
Here are some original and contemporary ideas as suggestions:
A Telengana tableaux with a fasting KCR and Osmania University students setting ablaze buses and cars and PC trying to pour water on it.
An IT tableaux with a relaxed Shashi Tharoor tweeting
A UP tableaux with Kum Mayawati as a statue
A Samajwadi Party tableaux with Amar Singh as pied piper walking out with Sanju baba, Jayaprada and Jaya Bachchan.
A BJP tableaux with Nitin Gadkari as Hanuman lifting the mountainous party.
A railway tableaux with Mamta Banerjee in the driver’s seat and Lalu Prasad running after the train.
And of course, an IPL tableaux with Pakistani players beating their chests in mourning as Shilpa, Preity and Nita Ambani engage in a jig.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
A Resolution for Peace
Like every year, this year too I have made my New Year resolutions, such as getting up early, going to bed early, taking food on time, exercising regularly, maintaining diet, spending more time with family, reading more books, meeting more friends, not getting angry, doing Yoga and meditation, not eating junk food etc etc, resolutions that have been made umpteen times in the past only to be broken within an hour, day, week or a month at the most.
Yet, when we look all around us, the agitation for Telengana, the Maoist violence along the Red Corridor, the insurgency in North East, the militancy in Kashmir, terrorists acts in different parts of the country and the world, only one desire comes to the fore – Peace.
But can peace be achieved merely by preaching? All religions have preached peace since time immemorial. Lord Buddha’s sermon was all about Ahimsa or non-violence yet in the past year, there couldn’t have been anything more violent and brutal than what the predominantly Buddhist Sinhalese Sri Lankan Army perpetrated on the innocent Tamilian population in the island nation during the war against LTTE. Latest television footages of Lankan soldiers blindfolding the victims and shooting them at point blank range has only confirmed the open secret.
Most terror activities in India, USA, Israel, Pakistan and Afghanistan are being carried out by fundamentalist elements under the garb of Islam which itself means ‘Peace’. Certainly, such acts including against Mosques and Muslims themselves were never endorsed by the Prophet.
Jesus of Nazareth too taught the world to show the other cheek when slapped on one. Yet, neither the activities of pre-dominantly Christian insurgent groups in North-East India or the racist attack on Indian students in Australia conform to the peace and non-violence enunciated and espoused in the Holy Bible.
The irony of the times is that US President Barack Obama in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech justified both war and violence, of course, to establish peace.
Since time immemorial, there have been efforts to establish peace and harmony. From the World Parliament of Religions, where Swami Vivekananda made history, to the creation of League of Nations and the United Nations, history has been witnesses to umpteen such sincere and honest efforts to resolve conflicts. Yet, disharmony rules the roost, violence continues unabated.
With the conflict resolution models failing to succeed, the time has come to evolve conflict avoidance models. Resolution comes after the conflict take place whereas conflict avoidance is a preventive as against a curative step.
The need of the hour is paradigm shift in thinking from the now prevailing notion of tolerance of other faiths as the ideal to the ideal of acceptance of all faiths as valid and sacred to achieve peace and harmony based on mutual accommodation.
In fact, a silent revolution has been taking place. Religious leaders from the world over signed the historic inter-faith document, ‘The Faith Human Rights Statement’, on December 10, 2008. While emphasizing the importance of the freedom of expression, the leaders resolved to deplore the portrayals of objects of religious veneration which fail to be properly respectful to the sensibilities of believers (supporters of the Danish cartoonist and M F Hussein, please note). They also agreed the freedom to have, to retain and to adopt a religion or belief of one’s choice, without coercion or inducement to be an undeniable right. This declaration addressed a principal apprehension of faiths like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism (in the Indian context) and Confucianism about the Abrahamic faiths. Interestingly, conversion has been a major bone of contention between Hindu and Christian groups in the country and both leaders of Abrahamic religions and Head of the Hindu Acharya Sabha Swami Dayananda Saraswathi were signatories to this agreement at Amsterdam.
The Swami also traveled to Israel and held a comprehensive dialogue with top Jewish leaders which helped remove theological misunderstanding that existed between the two faiths over the centuries, rather millennia. In a joint declaration after the dialogue, the Jewish leaders were convinced that the different idols and Gods in Hinduism were merely the form, but in substance, the Hindus accepted only one reality. This was a path breaking and illustrative endeavour to remove a basic and fundamental misconception about Hinduism in the oldest of the Abrahamic faiths.
This opens the gates for similar consensus with the other Abrahamic faiths, Islam and Christianity, which is particularly crucial, nay critical, in the Indian context.
In this regard, the Global Foundation for Civilizational Harmony (India), which was founded exactly two years back in the presence of a galaxy of spiritual leaders from all faiths in the presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, has been doing a pioneering work. Deviating from the popular and conventional models of seeking harmony among faiths and civilizations, the organization is engaged in the difficult path of persuading different faiths and civilizations to undergo an endogenous transformation and thereby bring about changes in the longstanding perceptions about them within and outside as an essential part of the process to bring about lasting harmony among faiths and civilizations.
In fact, GFCH India supported and worked with the Darul Uloom Deoband to hold rallies of Muslims against terrorism in different parts of India with a view to dispel the perception identifying terror with Islam. The Foundation felt that unless some visible initiative was taken from within the community and by a reputed and respected Islamic theological school to dispel this perception, it was bound to persist and even deepen.
Of late, GFCH organized a Hindu Spiritual and Service Fair in Chennai, in which about 100 Hindu spiritual organizations such as Ramakrishna Mission, Art of Living foundation, Patanjali Yogapeeth, Kanchi and Sringeri Mutts, Mata Amritanandamayi Math participated, with the objective of dispelling a long held perception that Hindu spiritual organizations were not socially conscious and they do not have a deep impulse for public service. Apart from the younger generation within the community, this perception had also greatly prejudiced the respect for Hindu faith in the minds of the followers of other faiths, as a socially insensitive faith. Needless to metion here that the fair, inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Governor S S Barnala, was a grand success with over 1.25 lakh visitors.
Next on the cards for the Foundation is an ‘Islam in the Service of Mother India’ fair, probably in Delhi, with the twin objectives of showcasing the service aspect of Islam as also the community’s unquestionable commitment to the motherland, unmindful over the controversy over Vande Mataram etc.
I am sure, there are other organizations doing equally good work. Let us strengthen such efforts, for at stake is global peace and harmony, which is crucial for progress and prosperity. Let our resolution this year be for creating a peaceful and harmonious universe. Amen, Inshallah, Tathastu!
Yet, when we look all around us, the agitation for Telengana, the Maoist violence along the Red Corridor, the insurgency in North East, the militancy in Kashmir, terrorists acts in different parts of the country and the world, only one desire comes to the fore – Peace.
But can peace be achieved merely by preaching? All religions have preached peace since time immemorial. Lord Buddha’s sermon was all about Ahimsa or non-violence yet in the past year, there couldn’t have been anything more violent and brutal than what the predominantly Buddhist Sinhalese Sri Lankan Army perpetrated on the innocent Tamilian population in the island nation during the war against LTTE. Latest television footages of Lankan soldiers blindfolding the victims and shooting them at point blank range has only confirmed the open secret.
Most terror activities in India, USA, Israel, Pakistan and Afghanistan are being carried out by fundamentalist elements under the garb of Islam which itself means ‘Peace’. Certainly, such acts including against Mosques and Muslims themselves were never endorsed by the Prophet.
Jesus of Nazareth too taught the world to show the other cheek when slapped on one. Yet, neither the activities of pre-dominantly Christian insurgent groups in North-East India or the racist attack on Indian students in Australia conform to the peace and non-violence enunciated and espoused in the Holy Bible.
The irony of the times is that US President Barack Obama in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech justified both war and violence, of course, to establish peace.
Since time immemorial, there have been efforts to establish peace and harmony. From the World Parliament of Religions, where Swami Vivekananda made history, to the creation of League of Nations and the United Nations, history has been witnesses to umpteen such sincere and honest efforts to resolve conflicts. Yet, disharmony rules the roost, violence continues unabated.
With the conflict resolution models failing to succeed, the time has come to evolve conflict avoidance models. Resolution comes after the conflict take place whereas conflict avoidance is a preventive as against a curative step.
The need of the hour is paradigm shift in thinking from the now prevailing notion of tolerance of other faiths as the ideal to the ideal of acceptance of all faiths as valid and sacred to achieve peace and harmony based on mutual accommodation.
In fact, a silent revolution has been taking place. Religious leaders from the world over signed the historic inter-faith document, ‘The Faith Human Rights Statement’, on December 10, 2008. While emphasizing the importance of the freedom of expression, the leaders resolved to deplore the portrayals of objects of religious veneration which fail to be properly respectful to the sensibilities of believers (supporters of the Danish cartoonist and M F Hussein, please note). They also agreed the freedom to have, to retain and to adopt a religion or belief of one’s choice, without coercion or inducement to be an undeniable right. This declaration addressed a principal apprehension of faiths like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism (in the Indian context) and Confucianism about the Abrahamic faiths. Interestingly, conversion has been a major bone of contention between Hindu and Christian groups in the country and both leaders of Abrahamic religions and Head of the Hindu Acharya Sabha Swami Dayananda Saraswathi were signatories to this agreement at Amsterdam.
The Swami also traveled to Israel and held a comprehensive dialogue with top Jewish leaders which helped remove theological misunderstanding that existed between the two faiths over the centuries, rather millennia. In a joint declaration after the dialogue, the Jewish leaders were convinced that the different idols and Gods in Hinduism were merely the form, but in substance, the Hindus accepted only one reality. This was a path breaking and illustrative endeavour to remove a basic and fundamental misconception about Hinduism in the oldest of the Abrahamic faiths.
This opens the gates for similar consensus with the other Abrahamic faiths, Islam and Christianity, which is particularly crucial, nay critical, in the Indian context.
In this regard, the Global Foundation for Civilizational Harmony (India), which was founded exactly two years back in the presence of a galaxy of spiritual leaders from all faiths in the presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, has been doing a pioneering work. Deviating from the popular and conventional models of seeking harmony among faiths and civilizations, the organization is engaged in the difficult path of persuading different faiths and civilizations to undergo an endogenous transformation and thereby bring about changes in the longstanding perceptions about them within and outside as an essential part of the process to bring about lasting harmony among faiths and civilizations.
In fact, GFCH India supported and worked with the Darul Uloom Deoband to hold rallies of Muslims against terrorism in different parts of India with a view to dispel the perception identifying terror with Islam. The Foundation felt that unless some visible initiative was taken from within the community and by a reputed and respected Islamic theological school to dispel this perception, it was bound to persist and even deepen.
Of late, GFCH organized a Hindu Spiritual and Service Fair in Chennai, in which about 100 Hindu spiritual organizations such as Ramakrishna Mission, Art of Living foundation, Patanjali Yogapeeth, Kanchi and Sringeri Mutts, Mata Amritanandamayi Math participated, with the objective of dispelling a long held perception that Hindu spiritual organizations were not socially conscious and they do not have a deep impulse for public service. Apart from the younger generation within the community, this perception had also greatly prejudiced the respect for Hindu faith in the minds of the followers of other faiths, as a socially insensitive faith. Needless to metion here that the fair, inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Governor S S Barnala, was a grand success with over 1.25 lakh visitors.
Next on the cards for the Foundation is an ‘Islam in the Service of Mother India’ fair, probably in Delhi, with the twin objectives of showcasing the service aspect of Islam as also the community’s unquestionable commitment to the motherland, unmindful over the controversy over Vande Mataram etc.
I am sure, there are other organizations doing equally good work. Let us strengthen such efforts, for at stake is global peace and harmony, which is crucial for progress and prosperity. Let our resolution this year be for creating a peaceful and harmonious universe. Amen, Inshallah, Tathastu!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
After Telengana, Why Not Mayur Vihar?
Mayur Vihar in East Delhi is a peaceful middle class locality. It has a mixed population, with a sizeable chunk coming from South India. But that peace is going to be shattered soon, for a section of the populace has taken a decision to seek a separate state. While apparently this may sound unreasonable, ridiculous and even outrageous, the proponents of the ‘Greater Mayur Vihar’ state have their own logic. One, being part of East Delhi, they are a neglected lot compared to their upmarket cousins in say, Greater Kailash, Golf Links, Vasant Vihar etc in South Delhi, not to talk of the denizens of Lutyen’s New Delhi. That’s a discrimination at par with the one faced by the Gorkhas in Darjeeling and Siliguri and worse than the citizens of Telengana. At least, they have a Hyderabad to boast of. Secondly, under a ‘deep-rooted’ conspiracy, Mayur Vihar has been split into three phases, I, II and III, each leagues away from each other. Now, if the Nagas can ask for parts of Manipur and other North-Eastern states for a Greater Nagaland, why not a Greater Mayur Vihar?
Thus, we are underdeveloped vis-à-vis the rest of the city, we have been ‘discriminated’ against and we have been split into three and therefore, the demand for Mayur Vihar as an independent state is fully justified. We will have the comparatively developed Phase-II as the capital city, since it is encircled by the Sanjay lake, possessed with wildlife in the form of monkeys, peacocks and snakes, equipped with its own telephone exchange, a couple of hospitals and banks and of course a bar-cum-restaurant, the symbol of any vibrant city with an active night life. And the protests are also going to be a smooth affair. Since, the sleek modern low-floor buses introduced in the national capital ahead of the Commonwealth Games 2010 are catching fire on their own, we don’t even need to set them ablaze. And since many people in the peripheral areas of Mayur Vihar, such as Kalyanpuri, Trilokpuri et al, find it difficult to get two square meals a day, sitting on fast too is not going to be a great problem. They need not escape from the hospital to have a binge and resume their ‘fast unto death’.
And of course, the Union Home Minister being a highly obliging and ‘sensitive’ person, within a day or two of the protest, we are expecting a midnight declaration to the effect that the process for the creation of Greater Mayur Vihar or Mayuranchal with Mayurabad as the capital as the 30th state of the Union of India, after the establishment of Telengana as the 29th state of the Union, if and when that happens, would soon get underway.
Figment of imagination or flight of fancy or an element of lunacy? But it’s for real. Look at the demands gathering momentum. Television shots of a Sikh gentleman and his supporters blocking railway traffic in support of Vidarbha, demands for Maru Pradesh, Vidarbha, Kodagu, Saurashtra, Poorvanchal, Bundelkhand, Harit Pradesh, the list seems endless.
Is statehood the panacea for underdevelopment or regional imbalance? If today the argument is that large states are unmanageable and hence need to be broken up, tomorrow the same yardstick would apply to large countries too, including India.
So, are we heading for Balkanization, implementing ourselves what a Chinese think tank had contemplated few months back? Are we going back to the days of the principalities and provinces, for whose merger with the Indian Union, the Iron Man of India so assiduously worked. It’s an irony that the modern ‘Lauh Purush’, who claims to be an ardent devotee of the Sardar and even got his bosom pal Jaswant Singh expelled from the party for criticisng the icon, advocates the creation of small states.
Jharkhand and Uttarakhand are examples of how bad an idea small states could be. The recent fractured verdict in Jharkhand and the influential role of small but dubious political parties indicate how fragile and vulnerable their polity is. Except tourism, does small states like Goa and Kerala have anything else to boast of, except for Kerala, the highest liquor consumption, divorce rate etc. Look at the condition of women in small states such as Haryana and Punjab where male-female ratio is among the lowest in the country. Uttarakhand is totally dependent on central funds for its very survival and what is the guarantee that tomorrow the people of Kumaon and Garhwal, the two distinct regions of the state, do not feel discriminated against and demand separate statehood?
In Uttarakhand, every second MLA was given the status of a Minister with a beacon light and hooter in tow. Are not marginalized political leaders such as Chandrasekhar Rao and Ajit Singh behind such demands? Aren’t certain influential castes going to dominate the polity of these states at the cost of others? With her vote bank equally distributed across the state, Mayawati obviously wants her influence to span across three states, to realize her Prime Ministerial ambitions, since her attempts to expand the party beyond Uttar Pradesh has failed to take off so far.
Secondly, is statehood the only solution to under development and regional imbalance? No. There are other constitutional mechanisms such as creation of Autonomous Development Councils and Regions within different states. But the counter argument is that such council have failed, whether it be in Karbi Anglog in Assam or Ladakh or Darjeeling. But that’s not because the mechanism is wrong, but the mechanics. Both the Centre and the respective states gave these regions and districts only autonomy on paper. Rest was tokenism. No real financial or administrative powers. And the result naturally is continued under development and neglect.
So, what’s the solution? To begin with, the very concept of linguistic states was wrong. Had language been a unifying factor, there was no reason why the Telugu speaking people of Telengana should seek separation from their brethren in Rayalseema and Coastal Andhra. There is very little in common between the Tamils in Tamil Nadu and the ones in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa. Even the language they speak have a distinct flavour. The same holds true for Bengalis. The ‘Bhadralok’ from Kolkata used to dismiss the residents of Chittaranjan Park in South Delhi as ‘EDPD’ (East Pakistan Displaced Persons) and till sometime back, even marriage among them was taboo. The people in North Kerala hold the people in south in contempt and vice-versa.
The solution lies in decentralization and devolution of powers from the Centre to the states and the states to the regions, districts and right upto the Panchayats. The solution lies in strengthening and empowering Panchayati Raj institutions. The late Rajiv Gandhi had famously stated once that out of the every rupee sent from the Centre, only 15 paise reaches the target. And the reason for this is rampant corruption, absence of transparency, lack of powers of the local bodies, insincere monitoring and implementation and above all absence of sincere intentions.
Instead of spending crores and crores of rupees in setting up another huge administrative machinery for a state Government, the money could be effectively utilized to educate and employ lakhs of people, provide them a roof over their head and two square meals a day.
As for the growing demands for separate states, instead of rushing in where fools fear to tread, the Union Government should announce creation of another state reorganization committee, which like other commissions of its kind such as the Liberhan Commission, should take at least two decades to finalise its report, to be followed by a leak to a leading newspaper ahead of a parliament session to ensure an uproar and a quick burial, to be subsequently followed by another Commission to study the demands afresh to be followed by….
Thus, we are underdeveloped vis-à-vis the rest of the city, we have been ‘discriminated’ against and we have been split into three and therefore, the demand for Mayur Vihar as an independent state is fully justified. We will have the comparatively developed Phase-II as the capital city, since it is encircled by the Sanjay lake, possessed with wildlife in the form of monkeys, peacocks and snakes, equipped with its own telephone exchange, a couple of hospitals and banks and of course a bar-cum-restaurant, the symbol of any vibrant city with an active night life. And the protests are also going to be a smooth affair. Since, the sleek modern low-floor buses introduced in the national capital ahead of the Commonwealth Games 2010 are catching fire on their own, we don’t even need to set them ablaze. And since many people in the peripheral areas of Mayur Vihar, such as Kalyanpuri, Trilokpuri et al, find it difficult to get two square meals a day, sitting on fast too is not going to be a great problem. They need not escape from the hospital to have a binge and resume their ‘fast unto death’.
And of course, the Union Home Minister being a highly obliging and ‘sensitive’ person, within a day or two of the protest, we are expecting a midnight declaration to the effect that the process for the creation of Greater Mayur Vihar or Mayuranchal with Mayurabad as the capital as the 30th state of the Union of India, after the establishment of Telengana as the 29th state of the Union, if and when that happens, would soon get underway.
Figment of imagination or flight of fancy or an element of lunacy? But it’s for real. Look at the demands gathering momentum. Television shots of a Sikh gentleman and his supporters blocking railway traffic in support of Vidarbha, demands for Maru Pradesh, Vidarbha, Kodagu, Saurashtra, Poorvanchal, Bundelkhand, Harit Pradesh, the list seems endless.
Is statehood the panacea for underdevelopment or regional imbalance? If today the argument is that large states are unmanageable and hence need to be broken up, tomorrow the same yardstick would apply to large countries too, including India.
So, are we heading for Balkanization, implementing ourselves what a Chinese think tank had contemplated few months back? Are we going back to the days of the principalities and provinces, for whose merger with the Indian Union, the Iron Man of India so assiduously worked. It’s an irony that the modern ‘Lauh Purush’, who claims to be an ardent devotee of the Sardar and even got his bosom pal Jaswant Singh expelled from the party for criticisng the icon, advocates the creation of small states.
Jharkhand and Uttarakhand are examples of how bad an idea small states could be. The recent fractured verdict in Jharkhand and the influential role of small but dubious political parties indicate how fragile and vulnerable their polity is. Except tourism, does small states like Goa and Kerala have anything else to boast of, except for Kerala, the highest liquor consumption, divorce rate etc. Look at the condition of women in small states such as Haryana and Punjab where male-female ratio is among the lowest in the country. Uttarakhand is totally dependent on central funds for its very survival and what is the guarantee that tomorrow the people of Kumaon and Garhwal, the two distinct regions of the state, do not feel discriminated against and demand separate statehood?
In Uttarakhand, every second MLA was given the status of a Minister with a beacon light and hooter in tow. Are not marginalized political leaders such as Chandrasekhar Rao and Ajit Singh behind such demands? Aren’t certain influential castes going to dominate the polity of these states at the cost of others? With her vote bank equally distributed across the state, Mayawati obviously wants her influence to span across three states, to realize her Prime Ministerial ambitions, since her attempts to expand the party beyond Uttar Pradesh has failed to take off so far.
Secondly, is statehood the only solution to under development and regional imbalance? No. There are other constitutional mechanisms such as creation of Autonomous Development Councils and Regions within different states. But the counter argument is that such council have failed, whether it be in Karbi Anglog in Assam or Ladakh or Darjeeling. But that’s not because the mechanism is wrong, but the mechanics. Both the Centre and the respective states gave these regions and districts only autonomy on paper. Rest was tokenism. No real financial or administrative powers. And the result naturally is continued under development and neglect.
So, what’s the solution? To begin with, the very concept of linguistic states was wrong. Had language been a unifying factor, there was no reason why the Telugu speaking people of Telengana should seek separation from their brethren in Rayalseema and Coastal Andhra. There is very little in common between the Tamils in Tamil Nadu and the ones in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa. Even the language they speak have a distinct flavour. The same holds true for Bengalis. The ‘Bhadralok’ from Kolkata used to dismiss the residents of Chittaranjan Park in South Delhi as ‘EDPD’ (East Pakistan Displaced Persons) and till sometime back, even marriage among them was taboo. The people in North Kerala hold the people in south in contempt and vice-versa.
The solution lies in decentralization and devolution of powers from the Centre to the states and the states to the regions, districts and right upto the Panchayats. The solution lies in strengthening and empowering Panchayati Raj institutions. The late Rajiv Gandhi had famously stated once that out of the every rupee sent from the Centre, only 15 paise reaches the target. And the reason for this is rampant corruption, absence of transparency, lack of powers of the local bodies, insincere monitoring and implementation and above all absence of sincere intentions.
Instead of spending crores and crores of rupees in setting up another huge administrative machinery for a state Government, the money could be effectively utilized to educate and employ lakhs of people, provide them a roof over their head and two square meals a day.
As for the growing demands for separate states, instead of rushing in where fools fear to tread, the Union Government should announce creation of another state reorganization committee, which like other commissions of its kind such as the Liberhan Commission, should take at least two decades to finalise its report, to be followed by a leak to a leading newspaper ahead of a parliament session to ensure an uproar and a quick burial, to be subsequently followed by another Commission to study the demands afresh to be followed by….
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Remembering 6/12
Remembrance has become a national hobby. Earlier, it was a Government prerogative. From Pandit Nehru to Babu Jagjivan Ram and Chaudhury Charan Singh, not to speak of Birsa Munda, Tiruvalluvar, Subramaniam Bharatu, G V Mavalankar and umpteen others, the Government would dutifully remember their birth and death anniversaries, garland their statues dirties through the year by pigeons and pay floral tributes before their freshly polished portraits in Parliament. Every state, every community, every political party has to be satisfied. The Lok Sabha Secretariat would religiously publish their pen portraits carrying the same grammatical and typographical errors carried over the past decades (it’s a sin to fiddle with legacies).
Much before Akshardham and now the Commonwealth Games village, the banks of Yamuna were usurped by these departed souls for the benefit of the love birds in the capital who find peace (and other incidentals) in thesespacious memorials. We also have a Chief Minister, known for receiving lavish birthday gifts, who decided to inflict her memory on her people by installing larger than life statues of herself across the state.
It was but natural therefore, that the media too has joined the bandwagon. In the past couple of months, we have seen the 25th anniversary of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the anti-Sikh carnage across North India, the first anniversary of 26/11 etc and now December 6, the day the disputed structure was demolished in Ayodhya 17 years ago.
As usual, there will be pandemonium in Parliament. On a revival drive after the Ferozabad defeat, the Samajwadi Party will raise a hue and cry; to re-establish its Hindutva credentials, the BJP will stage a walkout; Congress spokespersons Manish Tiwari and Abhishek Singhvi would be on all television channels tearing apart the ‘communal’ face of the Jinnah-smitten BJP. Communal and secular outfits would stage demos at Jantar Mantar followed by dosa and idli at the popular stall there. Barkha Dutt would have a ‘We the People’ programme based on it and Sagarika Ghose a ‘Face the Nation’ and of course Arnab Goswami would play it out 24X7/. India TV would interview the ghosts of the post-1992 riots and Syed Shahabuddin and Praful Goradia would be at each other’s throat on different television channels simultaneously.
This year, both the media and the political class have a new whipping boy – the report of the Liberhan Commission.
It is most unfortunate that a golden opportunity to debate on issues as varied and as significant as secularism, communalism, appeasement et al turned into a slanging match to score political brownie points, by the Congress to divert attention from spiraling prices, telecom and Koda scam and problems faced by sugarcane farmers; by the main Opposition BJP to revive its fortunes and regain lost Hindutva grounds and by the Samajwadi Party to regain the Muslim vote bank after its short-lived dalliance with Kalyan Singh, who was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh when the demolition took place.
If you don’t like the message, shoot the messenger, seems to be the policy adopted by our political class. The emphasis was more on how the report leaked rather than the contents of the report. At stake is the credibility of such inquiry commissions, which was given three months time and submitted a dud report 17 years later and after sending crores of rupees. Justice delayed is justice denied. And are we any wiser?
Let us face it. As of now, rebulding a mosque at the same place after removing the makeshift temple would be catastrophic, so would be building a grand temple over the rubbles of the mosque there. Moreover, neither the Hindus nor the Muslims seem to be obsessed with the issues as is being made out both by leaders of the VHP and the Babri Masjid Action Committee. They want to move on. Their priorities have changed. They are bothered more about bread and butter issues, in this era of recession and rising prices.
Let the status quo remain till both the communities arrive at a mutual understanding to resolve the issue. Time is a great healer and this wound too shall be healed, sooner or later.
And let not the BJP and Samajwadi Party seek to gain political mileage and inflame communal passions. They should not and they cannot. Talking about such issues would be just being out of sync with a resurgent, modern, young India. BJP should not forget the damage done by one speech of Varun Gandhi. They won Pilibhit but lost India. Let them not lose India once again for Uttar Pradesh.
The Muslims have seen through Mulayam’s game plan too. Ferozabad was only a trailer.
And yes, let not the Congress party rejoice over the divisons within Opposition ranks. Sugar cane farmers brought together the Opposition before the Liberhan report and the ‘Aam Admi’ can do an encore if the prices of pulses and other essential commodities continue to hit the roof.
We should remember these events not to deepen our wounds further but to introspect what went wrong and to ensure we don’t repeat them. The Muslims cannot be wished away, the Hindus will remain idolators, India will never become a Hindu Rashtra nor will the days of Mughal glory return. So, why not accept these harsh realities and work together for our tryst with destiny. Let a Hindu batsman break all cricket records as a Sikh Prime Minister is feted around by a US President while a Muslim musician bags the Oscars and a Christian Bollywood Hunk rides into every Indian heart on his bike. This would be the ultimate tribute on 6/12. Jai Hind!
Much before Akshardham and now the Commonwealth Games village, the banks of Yamuna were usurped by these departed souls for the benefit of the love birds in the capital who find peace (and other incidentals) in thesespacious memorials. We also have a Chief Minister, known for receiving lavish birthday gifts, who decided to inflict her memory on her people by installing larger than life statues of herself across the state.
It was but natural therefore, that the media too has joined the bandwagon. In the past couple of months, we have seen the 25th anniversary of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the anti-Sikh carnage across North India, the first anniversary of 26/11 etc and now December 6, the day the disputed structure was demolished in Ayodhya 17 years ago.
As usual, there will be pandemonium in Parliament. On a revival drive after the Ferozabad defeat, the Samajwadi Party will raise a hue and cry; to re-establish its Hindutva credentials, the BJP will stage a walkout; Congress spokespersons Manish Tiwari and Abhishek Singhvi would be on all television channels tearing apart the ‘communal’ face of the Jinnah-smitten BJP. Communal and secular outfits would stage demos at Jantar Mantar followed by dosa and idli at the popular stall there. Barkha Dutt would have a ‘We the People’ programme based on it and Sagarika Ghose a ‘Face the Nation’ and of course Arnab Goswami would play it out 24X7/. India TV would interview the ghosts of the post-1992 riots and Syed Shahabuddin and Praful Goradia would be at each other’s throat on different television channels simultaneously.
This year, both the media and the political class have a new whipping boy – the report of the Liberhan Commission.
It is most unfortunate that a golden opportunity to debate on issues as varied and as significant as secularism, communalism, appeasement et al turned into a slanging match to score political brownie points, by the Congress to divert attention from spiraling prices, telecom and Koda scam and problems faced by sugarcane farmers; by the main Opposition BJP to revive its fortunes and regain lost Hindutva grounds and by the Samajwadi Party to regain the Muslim vote bank after its short-lived dalliance with Kalyan Singh, who was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh when the demolition took place.
If you don’t like the message, shoot the messenger, seems to be the policy adopted by our political class. The emphasis was more on how the report leaked rather than the contents of the report. At stake is the credibility of such inquiry commissions, which was given three months time and submitted a dud report 17 years later and after sending crores of rupees. Justice delayed is justice denied. And are we any wiser?
Let us face it. As of now, rebulding a mosque at the same place after removing the makeshift temple would be catastrophic, so would be building a grand temple over the rubbles of the mosque there. Moreover, neither the Hindus nor the Muslims seem to be obsessed with the issues as is being made out both by leaders of the VHP and the Babri Masjid Action Committee. They want to move on. Their priorities have changed. They are bothered more about bread and butter issues, in this era of recession and rising prices.
Let the status quo remain till both the communities arrive at a mutual understanding to resolve the issue. Time is a great healer and this wound too shall be healed, sooner or later.
And let not the BJP and Samajwadi Party seek to gain political mileage and inflame communal passions. They should not and they cannot. Talking about such issues would be just being out of sync with a resurgent, modern, young India. BJP should not forget the damage done by one speech of Varun Gandhi. They won Pilibhit but lost India. Let them not lose India once again for Uttar Pradesh.
The Muslims have seen through Mulayam’s game plan too. Ferozabad was only a trailer.
And yes, let not the Congress party rejoice over the divisons within Opposition ranks. Sugar cane farmers brought together the Opposition before the Liberhan report and the ‘Aam Admi’ can do an encore if the prices of pulses and other essential commodities continue to hit the roof.
We should remember these events not to deepen our wounds further but to introspect what went wrong and to ensure we don’t repeat them. The Muslims cannot be wished away, the Hindus will remain idolators, India will never become a Hindu Rashtra nor will the days of Mughal glory return. So, why not accept these harsh realities and work together for our tryst with destiny. Let a Hindu batsman break all cricket records as a Sikh Prime Minister is feted around by a US President while a Muslim musician bags the Oscars and a Christian Bollywood Hunk rides into every Indian heart on his bike. This would be the ultimate tribute on 6/12. Jai Hind!
Friday, November 27, 2009
Remembering 26/11
It’s one year since those horrific terror attacks in Mumbai. Pictures of a burning Taj Mahal hotel near the Gateway of India and NSG commandos slithering down from choppers to rescue the trapped hostages and eliminate the enemies of the nation shall remain etched in Indian public memory for a long time to time. First anniversary is certainly a time to pay homage to the victims and tributes to the brave hearts who died fighting to save Mumbai, Mumbaikars and India.
Yet, anniversaries are also solemn occasions to engage in self-introspection as to what all lessons we learnt from the past to ensure that such crimes do not occur in the future. Reams have been written about the efficacy (or inefficiency) of our police and intelligence machinery, the loopholes therein and the possibility of similar attacks.
Nevertheless, one must give full credit to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram for ensuring that no major terror strikes took place thereafter. But that is no reason to celebrate, While Pakistan-backed terror attacks may have abated, due to increased vigilance and partly due to the international pressure on Islamabad, Naxalite attacks have increased manifold. Terrorism is terrorism. Let us not segregate it. Killing of innocents is unacceptable in a civilized society. There are democratic means of protests, howsoever genuine the grievances are.
If the Naxalite problem can be justified on the plea that the tribals face genuine problems, when we condemn terrorism, do we mean to say that the people in Kashmir are not facing problems? The million dollar question is whether in a civilized and democratic polity, is violence the answer to problems people face and the answer is an emphatic NO.
Coming back to Mumbai, television shots have shown us the miserable conditions in which policemen guarding the prestigious Gateway of India are living. Few sophisticated weapons and automobiles cannot do what motivated men can. While machines are important, the men behind the machines are more important. A demotivated security force with all the security paraphernalia just won’t be able to deliver.
Equally important is what Vice-President of India Hamid Ansari pointed out at a recent International Conference of Jurists on Terrorism in Delhi. He described corruption as the gravest threat to national security. Let us not treat anyone as holy cows. Let us accept that corruption exists not only among politicians and bureaucrats but also among our security forces personnel. There are black sheeps deployed along the nation’s porous borders who won’t blink an eye selling the nation’s security for a price. All the terrorists, their sophisticated weapons and the loads of counterfeit currency gaining free access into the country is certainly not reflective of the competence of the anti-India forces alone. Rather, they speak volumes of the incompetence and corruption among the people entrusted with guarding the nation’s frontiers and maintaining law and order across the country.
As they say, one bad fish can spoil the entire pond. Let us draw out an action plan to weed out such corrupt and anti-national elements from our patriotic forces. The war against corruption has to be an integral and inalienable part of our war against terrorism.
Last but not the least, has the media learnt any lessons? Again, an emphatic No. We only slammed those who dared to criticize us, such as the Naval Chief. We have become so touchy and hypersensitive that we consider even a mild criticism as an assault on freedom of speech and expression. This is another threat to democracy and free speech and exposes the double standards of Indian media, among the free-est, if one may describe so, in the democratic world. Carrying live commando operations, to the advantage of the enemy, was nothing short of irresponsibility. It only reminded one of the Himalayan blunders committed by some of our television journalists during the Kargil conflict wherein they exposed our forces to enemy fire, just for the sake of exclusive shots. Sad that instead of being condemned to the dustbins of the profession, they went on to acquire the halo of Christian Amanpour of Indian media.
The scare the Indian media created following the outbreak of H1N1, which happened after the Mumbai attacks, showed that we have not learnt any lessons. They succeeded in shutting down Mumbai, its markets, malls and movie halls, something Ajmal Kasab and his accomplices could not. More people have died of Dengue in Delhi alone over the past couple of months than the people killed by H1N1 across the country put together.
It’s high time the media too did some introspection. While pointing a finger at others, it must remember that three fingers are pointed inwards. As an eminent thinker said, you may disagree with me but I shall defend your right to disagree.
Let us all pledge to be a little less corrupt, a little more patriotic, a little less talkative and a little more hardworking. That would be the real tribute to the martyrs of Mumbai, not just candlelight and flowers.
Yet, anniversaries are also solemn occasions to engage in self-introspection as to what all lessons we learnt from the past to ensure that such crimes do not occur in the future. Reams have been written about the efficacy (or inefficiency) of our police and intelligence machinery, the loopholes therein and the possibility of similar attacks.
Nevertheless, one must give full credit to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram for ensuring that no major terror strikes took place thereafter. But that is no reason to celebrate, While Pakistan-backed terror attacks may have abated, due to increased vigilance and partly due to the international pressure on Islamabad, Naxalite attacks have increased manifold. Terrorism is terrorism. Let us not segregate it. Killing of innocents is unacceptable in a civilized society. There are democratic means of protests, howsoever genuine the grievances are.
If the Naxalite problem can be justified on the plea that the tribals face genuine problems, when we condemn terrorism, do we mean to say that the people in Kashmir are not facing problems? The million dollar question is whether in a civilized and democratic polity, is violence the answer to problems people face and the answer is an emphatic NO.
Coming back to Mumbai, television shots have shown us the miserable conditions in which policemen guarding the prestigious Gateway of India are living. Few sophisticated weapons and automobiles cannot do what motivated men can. While machines are important, the men behind the machines are more important. A demotivated security force with all the security paraphernalia just won’t be able to deliver.
Equally important is what Vice-President of India Hamid Ansari pointed out at a recent International Conference of Jurists on Terrorism in Delhi. He described corruption as the gravest threat to national security. Let us not treat anyone as holy cows. Let us accept that corruption exists not only among politicians and bureaucrats but also among our security forces personnel. There are black sheeps deployed along the nation’s porous borders who won’t blink an eye selling the nation’s security for a price. All the terrorists, their sophisticated weapons and the loads of counterfeit currency gaining free access into the country is certainly not reflective of the competence of the anti-India forces alone. Rather, they speak volumes of the incompetence and corruption among the people entrusted with guarding the nation’s frontiers and maintaining law and order across the country.
As they say, one bad fish can spoil the entire pond. Let us draw out an action plan to weed out such corrupt and anti-national elements from our patriotic forces. The war against corruption has to be an integral and inalienable part of our war against terrorism.
Last but not the least, has the media learnt any lessons? Again, an emphatic No. We only slammed those who dared to criticize us, such as the Naval Chief. We have become so touchy and hypersensitive that we consider even a mild criticism as an assault on freedom of speech and expression. This is another threat to democracy and free speech and exposes the double standards of Indian media, among the free-est, if one may describe so, in the democratic world. Carrying live commando operations, to the advantage of the enemy, was nothing short of irresponsibility. It only reminded one of the Himalayan blunders committed by some of our television journalists during the Kargil conflict wherein they exposed our forces to enemy fire, just for the sake of exclusive shots. Sad that instead of being condemned to the dustbins of the profession, they went on to acquire the halo of Christian Amanpour of Indian media.
The scare the Indian media created following the outbreak of H1N1, which happened after the Mumbai attacks, showed that we have not learnt any lessons. They succeeded in shutting down Mumbai, its markets, malls and movie halls, something Ajmal Kasab and his accomplices could not. More people have died of Dengue in Delhi alone over the past couple of months than the people killed by H1N1 across the country put together.
It’s high time the media too did some introspection. While pointing a finger at others, it must remember that three fingers are pointed inwards. As an eminent thinker said, you may disagree with me but I shall defend your right to disagree.
Let us all pledge to be a little less corrupt, a little more patriotic, a little less talkative and a little more hardworking. That would be the real tribute to the martyrs of Mumbai, not just candlelight and flowers.
Monday, November 9, 2009
'Bhasmasuras' of Indian Politics
Finally, the political crisis in Karnataka appears to have blown over with a ‘dictatorial’ Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa succumbing to the demands of rebel MPs led by Bellary’s (in) famous Reddy brothers, after an emotional outburst on television. With his wings clipped, the Chief Minister presented a rag-tag compromise as a memento to party stalwart L K Advani on his 82nd birthday in Delhi. In the process, he had to ‘sacrifice’ not only his close aides such as Minister Shobha but also loyal bureaucrats like Baligar.
While the emergence of the Reddys, mining barons who have wreaked havoc with their mining activities on the Andhra-Karnataka border, as political heavy weights influencing the fate of democratically elected Governments is a matter of serious concern for one and all, the development should also open the eyes of political parties like the BJP, which swear by morality and ethics, to the follies of aligning with such elements in their blind pursuit of power.
All said and done, it was the Reddy brothers, who facilitated the formation of the first saffron Government south of Vindhyas, by luring away legislators from the opposition Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) and it was but natural that they would extract their pound of flesh. The days of freebies and free lunches are over, so are convictions and ideological commitments in politics. Politics has become a marriage of convenience and power has become an end in itself and no more a means to serve the masses.
In Indian mythology, we have the story of Bhasmasura, the demon who obtained from Lord Siva the power to turn anyone into ashes by just keeping his hand over them and then turned against the same divinity to try his hand out, literally. In the West, we have the famous story of Frankenstein.
But then grooming monsters are not new to us in Indian politics. Wasn’t it the Congress party which groomed Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale with the vested interest of belittling the Akalis. The Sikh militancy, the Operation Bluestar, the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the unfortunate riots that followed it are too deep scars etched in our national memory. So is the case with the LTTE, which ultimately devoured a promising national leader.
Examples galore both domestically and internationally. The US is paying the price to date for raising the Mujahideen in Afghanistan while Pakistan is today at the receiving end of Taliban, the Islamic student militia, which it sustained and nourished for decades.
The decline of the BJP has little to do with either Hindutva or Jinnah. They are at best excuses. For a party that projected itself as ‘different’, the nemesis has its origins in the umpteen compromises it made for the sake of power. In its pursuit of power, the party threw to the winds all norms of propriety and ethics and colluded with the most corrupt.
Soon, the façade fell of and the people, who were looking for an alternative to the five-decade long rule of the Congress party, realized they were being led up the garden path by a poor copy cat of the very same party they were planning to boot out for good. If corruption and compromise are the hallmarks, then why not the original, they asked and voted back the Congress for a second consecutive term.
From the Tehelka tapes to the cash for questions and MPLAD scam, BJP leaders and MPs ruled the roost and established new benchmarks in political debasement - from a national President taking Rs One Lakh on camera to an MP being sold for Rs 5,000/- for a parliament question. The compromise with the Reddy brothers will add another inglorious chapter to the party’s long list of unpardonable compromises for the sake of sticking on to power. After all, wasn’t this the party which aligned with Jayalalithaa after organizing nation-wide protests against the arrest of the Shankaracharya of Kanchi by her Government? If BJP intends to restore its credibility and regain the confidence of the Indian people, it will have to live up to its ‘PROMISES’ and end once for all, the tendency to ‘COMPROMISE’.
While the emergence of the Reddys, mining barons who have wreaked havoc with their mining activities on the Andhra-Karnataka border, as political heavy weights influencing the fate of democratically elected Governments is a matter of serious concern for one and all, the development should also open the eyes of political parties like the BJP, which swear by morality and ethics, to the follies of aligning with such elements in their blind pursuit of power.
All said and done, it was the Reddy brothers, who facilitated the formation of the first saffron Government south of Vindhyas, by luring away legislators from the opposition Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) and it was but natural that they would extract their pound of flesh. The days of freebies and free lunches are over, so are convictions and ideological commitments in politics. Politics has become a marriage of convenience and power has become an end in itself and no more a means to serve the masses.
In Indian mythology, we have the story of Bhasmasura, the demon who obtained from Lord Siva the power to turn anyone into ashes by just keeping his hand over them and then turned against the same divinity to try his hand out, literally. In the West, we have the famous story of Frankenstein.
But then grooming monsters are not new to us in Indian politics. Wasn’t it the Congress party which groomed Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale with the vested interest of belittling the Akalis. The Sikh militancy, the Operation Bluestar, the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the unfortunate riots that followed it are too deep scars etched in our national memory. So is the case with the LTTE, which ultimately devoured a promising national leader.
Examples galore both domestically and internationally. The US is paying the price to date for raising the Mujahideen in Afghanistan while Pakistan is today at the receiving end of Taliban, the Islamic student militia, which it sustained and nourished for decades.
The decline of the BJP has little to do with either Hindutva or Jinnah. They are at best excuses. For a party that projected itself as ‘different’, the nemesis has its origins in the umpteen compromises it made for the sake of power. In its pursuit of power, the party threw to the winds all norms of propriety and ethics and colluded with the most corrupt.
Soon, the façade fell of and the people, who were looking for an alternative to the five-decade long rule of the Congress party, realized they were being led up the garden path by a poor copy cat of the very same party they were planning to boot out for good. If corruption and compromise are the hallmarks, then why not the original, they asked and voted back the Congress for a second consecutive term.
From the Tehelka tapes to the cash for questions and MPLAD scam, BJP leaders and MPs ruled the roost and established new benchmarks in political debasement - from a national President taking Rs One Lakh on camera to an MP being sold for Rs 5,000/- for a parliament question. The compromise with the Reddy brothers will add another inglorious chapter to the party’s long list of unpardonable compromises for the sake of sticking on to power. After all, wasn’t this the party which aligned with Jayalalithaa after organizing nation-wide protests against the arrest of the Shankaracharya of Kanchi by her Government? If BJP intends to restore its credibility and regain the confidence of the Indian people, it will have to live up to its ‘PROMISES’ and end once for all, the tendency to ‘COMPROMISE’.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
On Odisha and Odiya
Shakespeare had once famously remarked that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Yet, naming roads and buildings after their favourite leaders and renaming cities and towns or de-anglicizing them continues to be a fashion among our ruling class. After Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and Uttarakhand now comes Odisha. Even the language has been renamed Odia.
Undoubtedly, referring to one’s state and language in one’s own style does give a sense of pride, even if it happens to be tongue twister like Thiruvananthapuram as against the speaker friendly Trivandrum. Yet, it has to be ensured that this pride does not lead to linguistic fanaticism and quest for purity which has robbed languages such as Hindi and Urdu of its richness and beauty. The zealots failed to realize that a loud robust ‘Hoshiar’ is far more potent to keep the jawan alert rather than a timid ‘satark’ and a ‘Pradhan Mantri’ evokes much more respect than a ‘Wazir-E-Azam’, which sounds more akin to Sharbat-e-Azam.
Moreover, it is the development and inclusive growth and progress of the people of Odisha that should make one really proud than just the way the state’s name is pronounced.
Linguistic Purity
Former Minister Shahnawaz Hussein, who was recently in news for being denied and later granted visa by the United States, once recalled how as Minister for Food Processing (in the NDA Government), he was referred to by an Urdu purist at a conference as Wazir-E-Riyasat-Band Dabba.
Undoubtedly, referring to one’s state and language in one’s own style does give a sense of pride, even if it happens to be tongue twister like Thiruvananthapuram as against the speaker friendly Trivandrum. Yet, it has to be ensured that this pride does not lead to linguistic fanaticism and quest for purity which has robbed languages such as Hindi and Urdu of its richness and beauty. The zealots failed to realize that a loud robust ‘Hoshiar’ is far more potent to keep the jawan alert rather than a timid ‘satark’ and a ‘Pradhan Mantri’ evokes much more respect than a ‘Wazir-E-Azam’, which sounds more akin to Sharbat-e-Azam.
Moreover, it is the development and inclusive growth and progress of the people of Odisha that should make one really proud than just the way the state’s name is pronounced.
Linguistic Purity
Former Minister Shahnawaz Hussein, who was recently in news for being denied and later granted visa by the United States, once recalled how as Minister for Food Processing (in the NDA Government), he was referred to by an Urdu purist at a conference as Wazir-E-Riyasat-Band Dabba.
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