Laws- to implement or to harass?

Wishing the readers ( though none exist) a very Happy Deepawali and prosperous new year ahead. I live in Kolkata (India). There is a law in force banning noise producing crackers(various bombs). So people were arrested round the evening on Deewali day and serious charges framed against them. Many of them very respectable and honourable citizens. While this was happening, there was deafening sound of crackers and bombs all around me. Banning of smoking is another such law that readily comes to mind. We make laws probably with good intentions, forgetting that these simply can't be implemented. In due course, these serve just one purpose- harassment of normal citizens at the hand of law enforcing agencies.

PM Manmohan Singh and Pakistan

Watching PM defend his joint statement with Pakistan in Egypt few days back and then just after a few days listening him to say that there was serious terror threat from Pakistan confused me as it must have cnfused thousands of countrymen/women. Same day as he was talking of terror threat, the Home Minister was saying that PM's policy of 'trust and verify' for Pakistan had been a wise one. This confused further. The clarification was that what PM meant was that terror threat from Pak had nothing to do with Pak Govt. But unfortunately Pak hasn't (as it couldn't) taken kindly to PM's latest comments. So there will be lot of comments, counter comments such that we are kept busy with only statements and counterstatements. No one will have time to bother for actions, results and real issues. This is Governance. Let us also learn.

Shah Rukh Khan

A few days back I read a quote ascribed to SRK " I am tired of hearing success stories. Success just happens." or something to that effect. I have never been a big fan of SRK (though I have always been of Amitabha Bacchan) but I liked and appreciated this quote. This quote gains more authencity and value as it came from one of the most successful persons. We have no control over our birth, no control over our death- the two most defining events of what we call life, yet we lose no time or opportunity for crediting ourselves for whatever good happens to us in between. How paradoxical!
Coming back to SRK, it did occur to me also that the Newyork (USA) episode of his detention could have something to do with his forthcoming film ' My name is Khan'. Timing and emphasis on word Khan, if coincidental, was a good coincidence for the upcoming film. Watching reactions of SRK on TV on Amar Singh voicing what many had felt, I wondered what had hit SRK to lose his decency while reacting. He has been at too high a pedestal to react the way he did.

Injustices

It is heartening to see Sh. Amartya Sen talking of injustices in no uncertain manner. A well known person and not unknown entities like Sh. O.P. Mital or Atul Kumar has raised the most pertinent issue. But will anyone be interested? You know as well as I know. Our media and most of us will be more interested and busy in knowing what Katrina Kaif eats or what Shah Rukh wears or what is the latest hair style adopted by Dhoni. The list is endless. The print pages, the electronic viewing slots and men-hours spent on such trivialities and non-issues will be mind boggling. Who has got time and will to bother about justice and injustice. We shall continue with our follies unmindful that not in distant future we shall be engulfed by those. Let us hope I am proved wrong.

Sach ka Saamna

So media is above everybody. "Who are MP's to question the reality show 'Sach ka Aamna' shows similar to that have run successfully in 23 countries''. So were blurting a no. of media barons on electronic media yesterday evening. As per them MP's can't even question a thing which they consider harmful to nation. They don't have even that freedom while media needs all the freedom in the world!Will someone remiond these self proclaimed kings that MP's are duly elected representatives of people and they are responsible for running of the country more than anyone else? I just wonder what good 'Sach ka Saamna' can do to the viewer. 'hammam ke andar sab nange hain' is the Hindi proverb. What is the fun in showing that nangapan in public. Who is interested? I don't think healthy minds will be interested in that. Won't it be better if we and Media could face the ills of the society more truthfully?

Fashion-Let us talk about issues and only talk

I have been having my concerns about electronic media and delays in our judicial system. I felt happy to read a few days back that Sh. Rajdip Sardesai had somewhat similar concerns about electronic media and none less than our President expressed concern about delays in our judicial system. But will there be any improvements as a result of genuine concern being felt by those who matter? Let us keep hoping.

Budgetting for Leakages

It was about 20 years back when our PM (Late Sh. Rajiv Gandhi) publicly said that out of every Rupee of public expenses only about paise 15 reached the common man. Inspite of such a clear diagnosis two decades back, the 15 paise hasn't become 16, at best it might have become 14. We are a nation full of intellectuals, padma-vibhushans and padmashris, celeberities, great leaders and what not. Still shamelessly we have been levying and collecting more and more taxes, increasing budgetted expenditure year after year without any attempt to control leakage of those 85 or more paise. And we do know nothing is difficult if we have necessary will. Still we consider ourselves as a logical species!

Gay Sex

As a layman I understand that consensual sex among gays is legal now in India. I was wondering that are not homosexuals now better off than the hetrosexuals? All consensual sex among the latter is not legal still (adultery, prostitution etc). I was just wondering as a layman.

We as a collective species

We talk of one brotherhood but why is it so then that a man in street is least bothered if children are begging around him, if daily hundreds of innocent people die in blasts and violence in nearby countries? Are we civilised? Or civilisation is just a mask for us? Have we not failed utterly as a collective species? There are thousands of us who have means and do enjoy to the full, palatial living, the most delicious eating and completely satisfying love making with the most beautiful and handsome of the opposite (or same if lesbian) sex. Then there are billions who have to fight a daily battle for roti, kapda aur makan. Karl Marx and Communism couldn't succed. We have not been able to create a world order where people could coexist peacefully with basic needs of one and all being met with. If anything, we are fast going away from any such possible order by every minute. Human nature governs so and probably we have been so destined.

Money

All around us ( I included) we see people running after money at costs. Cost of relations, cost of peace, cost of love, cost of self respect and self esteem, cost of other human beings and so on. What matters is money and more money. Isn't it strange and doesn't it show how foolish our species is? Money is necessary to an extent. But what purpose does it serve beyond a limit? Untill and unless it is put to some use for doing something? Money in Swiss Banks? isn't it just a waste? And what costs people must have paid to earn that? Money can only be a means, not an end. I do feel we are the most foolish species on earth though we think just the opposite.

A clear mandate

The outcome of recent elections has been a pleasant surprise. Not a fractured but a united India. All pundits and non-pundits such as me proved wrong. Onus now shifts to the winner to deliver. Hope they'll do it. Inspite of my strong resentment against dynastic rule, I this time have an inkling that the coming Govt. would be the best we have ever seen. Parties who fought against the winner are now falling over each other to support the party against which they fought the elections. Does this mean they have realised their mistake and will not fight elections next time around as they exist today? If they have to support their opponents after elections, why waste so much time, money and energy ? Why to exist as opponents and befool all? Could we do something to get rid of such farce? Let us hope the very best for us.

14/05/09 The elections are over(india). Projections based on exit polls and analysis are out. A country of 100 crores electing its government for a long period of 5 years. Must have been a serious exercise one would think. Full of issues and meaningful deliberations nation wide. But were there any issues? Any purposeful discussions/deliberations? I can't think of one, though media and its wizards were busy round the clock. In telling us who was calling whom names and the resulting reactions and counter reactions. In projecting individuals since they happened to have been born in a particular family as our future leaders. Telling us what they ate and how they wore their clothes, their lips and noses indicated what. Even the PM of 100 crores couldn't find virtue in any one other than one born in that particular family to be another future PM! What a great country and what a great people! No issues, no positive line of action from any political outfit other than telling us what was wrong with others. No botheration

i) how justice could be expedited. Justice delayed is justice denied. So no justice.

ii) Everyone tells us out of one Rupee of public money spent, only a few paisa in single digit reach public. The leaders have been telling us so for last many decades. But any action or will to correct it? No. We must continue to vote them , but, so that they would be able do something if they so desire.

iii) Why should capable youth of a civilised society be without work?

iv) Why wealth should concentrate among a few and majority of countrymen languish in poverty?

A few which would readily come to any mind but these are not any issues of any importance either for the media or the leaders. A great democracy! Indian democracy needs redefinition. Should we call it 'Government of the morons, by machinations, for money'?

Great Indian Election Tamasha

Hope shall be able to post more frequently now. So as expected everyone has forgotten about 26/11 mumbai attack as media is besotted with elections. The other day one of my senior colleagues mentioned that 'Shatranj ke Khiladi ' described the Indian psyche. He couldn't be more correct. The issues being highlighted and debated by media while show their bankruptcy , also prove that 'Shatranj ke Khiladi ' is more relevant today than probably the times when it was written. 100 crore of 'great' country are loosing their sleep over 'budiya', 'gudiya', past actions which don't matter, PM candidates calling each other names like school or even street children. The real issues are just confined to manifestos (to be sold to kabadi after elections) or some vague references. Media is suddenly concerned about some candidate in some part of a constituency dishing out money to some voters. So is Election Commission. It is different matter that they didn't want to move eyelid when MP's were bought in cash for survival of a PM. It is not strange in a society where a thief /pickpocket goes to jail for a few hundreds of Rs. and people misappropriating hundreds of crores of Rs. out of public exchequre become chief executives/get awarded.
Writing is on the wall. A fragmented and disunited India. Probably that is what we deserve. By distance, no statesman is in sight. Only humanbeings hankering after power and 100 crore bowing to supremacy of one or two just because they are descendants of a particular person. What makes so many highly learned people accept persons who are as ordinary as one can be as their leader? It baffles me but then I must be a fool not to understand.
Whatever I am saying or will say, everything gets explained in one or two small paras my father wrote and I reproduced in the beginning of this blog. Referring back to that at intervals will help the readers. Thanks for the day.