The beauty and the beast

First the belligerent nature of Pakistan by firing unnecessarily across the border and then carrying the heads of Indian soldiers as trophies earned by them gives us a shock. And then it puts forward its most appealing minister Ms. Khar to pacify the issue and prevent India from putting up its case before other countries. Where on one hand, our Prime Minister has been offering peace-related measures, the Pakistani counterpart seems to have mistaken ``peace” for ``piece.” With the whole issue seemed to be getting out of hands of the Pakistan Government, it decided to resort to its last desperate measure, i.e., put forward its most good looking minister to charm the men in Indian politics. It is now to be seen as to whether our men acting at the Center take stern steps to resolve the issue permanently or slip at the sight of this very attractive and splendid representative, Ms. Khar, who has been appointed to act in an official capacity by our ever-hostile neighbor. Hope Ms. Khar does not resort to the Menaka act because it does not take enough time for Indian men to slip into a passionate mood like Vishvamitra.

The biggest joke is that we are Indians

Recently, some states were awarded and farmers facilitated with “Krishi Karman” awards for excellence in production of foodgrains. Awards do not cost much, so why not distribute them and keep people happy? But, what about those farmers who had pawned or sold away their land owing to bad crop production or reduced productivity and are now at the base of the prosperity pyramid? Is the government looking at them or would they remain unnoticed and deemed to die a death which farmers of Vidarbha had to resort to due to zero crop production and untimely or nil help from the state? Mr. Mukherjee said a large number of small and marginal farmers who were at the bottom of the prosperity pyramid would need adequate support from the government. How come he realized this after being chosen as the President and not during his tenure as the Finance Minister? We have hoards of awards in our country but few to match the caliber or purpose for which they are announced year after year. Is our democracy a joke, a sham, or something to be laughed or pitied at or should we still have faith in our politicians in the wake of situations that surround us and have forced us to rethink about the state of conditions in our country? Political scams, scandals, rape, soaring prices of even the basic necessities, falling value of rupee, hike in petrol prices due to our government policies, stress on quota, and many more. Bofors was just a metaphor initially when we had first heard of major scams in our country, but now it is being understood as the most minor form of scam till date. People from neighboring states penetrate our territory and behead our soldiers but the Government still insists on peace talks with the perpetrators of the crime. The Government has been attempting to reap a hallucinatory crop called peace in the soil of instability and fanaticism. The foundation stone of the Government of India was laid down by Nehru who with his escapist theories and nonchalant policies allowed China to torture the people living on the borders and take away a portion of Arunachal Pradesh. Nehru with his voracious appetite for power and women came out with a rhyming phrase instead, “Hindi Chini bhai bhai.” When asked, he retorted back saying that the portion of land that China had grabbed from Arunachal Pradesh was barren and not even a blade of grass could be grown there. The question, which arised, “Do we give away portions of our homes to outsiders just because plants cannot be grown there or do we protect and guard our homes from inquisitive eyes and interfering nature of our neighbors?” The man had failed to take a stand when it was most required. Then he created his future generation that assumed the nature of a gluttonous government. The people stood bleary-eyed waiting for some improvement to happen at the center, but nothing ever good churned out from our years of patience and tolerance. People were divided on caste and communal grounds to pave the way for vote banks and criminals were allowed to participate in the electoral process. The unqualified candidates and antisocial elements won the elections, boisterously ran to the House of the People to represent us, and were ecstatic on seeing their bank accounts bulge with the tax payers’ hard-earned money. Scams involving embezzlement of money occupied the front pages of our newspapers. And then evolved gender biasness and crimes being committed against women on a major level. The crimes that were believed to take place only in rural or illiterate people started taking place among the urban people. People glanced, looked, and then shied away from participating in movements against the crime. And then came the Government’s response, “We will not allow the criminals to go scott free.” History repeated itself in India when it came to witnessing gory crimes and scandalous events, but we still learned nothing from the lessons that we took. We now totally believe that democracy in our country, joked as our motherland, has reached the stage of pretence with its roots being dug deep into corruption. There is no end to it since we did nothing in the beginning to counter or check it. Our condition is deplorable and our people have become nothing less of a joke in the eyes of the foreign countries. The phalanx of people that erupted against the corrupt practices of the Government has died and there is nothing that can fuel our hearts into participating in constructive measures in favor of the society.

We look at the mindless policies of the Government of giving away food entitlements and cash reimbursements to the poor people, when in reality it never reaches them; inability to nab criminals at the proper time, thus giving them ample time to erase off every trace of evidence.

What is lacking is group solidarity, a consciousness that can rise above loyalties to caste, communities, religion, and sects and release the inspirational energy that can turn us into the most advanced democracy in the world. There is a touch of nationalism, if cultivated properly in the minds of the people, can turn our idle and inactive streets into a revolutionary force that can clear the country of the cobwebs of corruption, bigotry, sectarianism, communalism, fanaticism, poverty, and nepotism.

But alas, our wishes and experiences will remain confined to books to be read by our future generations. The schoolbooks will read:

·        Honesty is a good policy at times but never mistake is as the best policy;

·         Respect your mother and sister as women, rest are objects to be stared at or ogled at;

·        Eve teasing is not a crime, it is just another price to be paid by the women in our country;

·        It is ok if you rape someone because the Supreme Court does not dare to give death penalty to the rapist, since they do not define rape and murder as the rarest of rare crimes;

·        If you want to earn money, you ought to be politician;

·        The illiterate politicians are richer than us, then where does the value of education lie;

·        We do not have enough jobs in this country, so try thuggery and robbery instead to earn money;

·        We are not Indians, we are either Hindus or Muslims or Protestants or Catholics or Sikhs or Parsis;

·        Being an Indian means tolerance even if someone barges into our territory and beheads our dear ones;

·        If you are poor, all you get to eat or consume is the repetitive rambling of the politicians;

·        Do not expect any help from the Centre, they are fending for themselves and earning for their children;

·        Politics is the most lucrative source of income, do not mistake it with service for the people;

·        Forget what Gandhi, Tilak, Vallabhai Patel or Bose had said, they have no relevance in today’s society;

·        Take care of yourself, the police are busy giving protection to the politicians;

·        If you want a promotion in your job, all you have to do is to get your identified yourself as low-caste citizen or someone belonging to some minority group; and

      Do not forget the advantages of buttering, for it is nepotism that will get you your desired job.  

The biggest joke, which I face everyday is that I am an Indian. I and many others like me are facing this joke everyday with every day of our lives being less painful than before, because as Indians we have been taught the virtue of tolerance, in our middle-class society, indefinite tolerance.

      

The state of West Bengal: CPM ever hungry for attention and power; TMC callous about its women folk

Today every newspaper is flooded with news about the much hated incident regarding eve-teasing that happened in Kolkata. Even as the woman (alleged to be a victim of eve-teasing) had informed the police that she was under pressure from the Trinamool Congress Party to withdraw the complaint regarding lewd remarks being passed at her by certain troublemakers, Communist Party of India (Marxist) took it as an opportunity to build a space for themselves in the hearts of the native people by backlashing at the TMC for lack of security for women in the state.

What remains to be seen is that neither the ruling party decides to take a stand on the issue nor the opposing parties do anything to ensure arrest of the accused. They both got engaged in a futile battle as to whose fault it was and what could have been done. But neither of them decided to meet the victims of the issue, the people who had got beaten up while trying to protect the woman, nor ensure proper inquiry into the issue. The blighters belonging to Communist Party of India (Marxist) forget that situations were worse when they were in power. 

India is a strange democracy. It ensures right to secure lives but does not guarantee freedom of movement or right to self-respect or protection from rotten elements who are bent upon to destroy the basic rules, which guide our civilization.

Spot the difference

Nirbhaya, or Amaanat or Daamini, we regret the hurt caused to you due to our negligence, depreciating morality of the Indian males, and the deficiencies in our hollow and ductile nature of our law and order system.

If asked to spot the difference, anyone would be able to do that barring some Indian men for whom women are just objects to be utilized and destroyed like the semi-naked mannequins found in malls.

Respecting women is a time-honored quality practiced by various global communities and cultures and embodied in the local customs or lore of most civilizations. But, regrettably it is not the same in India. With families opting for a male child, the tele-serials depicting the benefits of having and living in a patriarchal society, girls being popularized as `Parayaa Dhan’, marital rape not being stringently punishable, the Indian society seems to have lost on the basic moral value of respecting women and treating them with dignity.

Where the Indian civilization was based on the strong foundation of love and respect for all and where regard for women was the very basis of our distinctive culture, the ever wandering and lubricious nature of Indian men have seemed to put a dent on the definition of respect and corroded the entire foundation on which our culture was built. The Indian culture initially was intricately woven around the belief that India is our motherland but the ignominious and vicious character of a large percentage of our Indian population seemed to have eaten away the core around which our culture was so carefully wound.

The definition of being a woman has been limited to the very basics of having breasts and vagina and being an object of craving and lust rather than a human to be dealt with reverence and esteem.

It is not only important to spot the difference in the above pictures but also in the indifferent stance of our society and the reasons which triggered the change.

We do not have to veil our women to shield and respect them; we just need to instill in our men the timeless quality of honor and the priceless quality of consideration for women.

Instead of spurting out opinions on what should be done, let us be a catalyst in restoring the order, peace, and mutual respect for which our Indian culture was appreciated and praised by one and all.

The burning issues

With all the candle marching, discussions on social platforms, mourning for the rape victims, demand for capital punishment for the accused, and resolution of boycotting the Republic Day celebrations, we seemed to have precipitated down on one burning issue-to have a safe and free India that our forefathers had dreamed of.

We are a democracy with equal rights for all in the eyes of the world, but how many of us have been able to understand the true meaning of it?

The marches are over, the days of praying for the rape victim are over, but the issue still remains. The issues of the deteriorating condition of our country’s law and order system, the dereliction of duty of our police force, the widely criticized techniques used for grappling power by our politicians, the blindfolded nature of our Indian Penal Code, the increasing terrorist activities of some antisocial elements in our society, and most importantly our safety in and out of our homes.

Instead of thinking about the incidents that have rocked the peace of our country till date, it is time that we start thinking of the issues at hand. Instead of presenting our country as an embellished and ornamented nation with elements of a true democracy, let us ponder on the precipitated issue at hand and all that we have learnt and experienced.

Let us take a resolution of participating in the country’s system rather than laying back and criticizing it. Let us understand the meaning of the most famous saying in The Three Musketeers, “One for all and all for one.” Let us act collectively and also on an individual level towards the building of a society which our forefathers wished to see and we still dream to live in.

Increasing number of malls, fluctuating stock markets, spiraling growth in prices of commodities and metals do not define a nation. It is the people who define a nation. It is the people who make it work. Lamenting, mourning, grieving, and languishing on certain instances of crime would not help solve the issue. It is time we move back and understand why it went wrong; it is time we realize that we enough potential and power to bring about a resolution – a drastic change, if not a revolution.

It is necessary to identify the issues before we think to act upon them. The issues of rape, domestic violence, marital rape, dowry killing, mental and physical agony in a relationship, honor killing, rulings and decisions of khaap panchayats, use of quota system to gain power, safety of the grey population, rising prices, female infanticide, female foeticide, our corrupt politicians, black marketing, embezzlement of money for evasion of tax duties, money laundering acts, increasing LPG prices, our corrupt bureaucracy, J & K issue, our borders being captured and the local population being harassed by the Chinese army, use of antique artillery by our army, spiraling prices of essential commodities, rates of sugar being controlled by sugar barons (who are actually politicians and have manipulated the prices for their own benefits), lack of proper insurance guidelines for a secure society, ignorance of people about their rights and duties, lack of proper infrastructure, roads found in pits and pits in roads, improper facilities of clean drinking water, loss of electricity by our power stations due to lack of supervision, ever increasing school fees, lack of proper educational curriculum due to our ineffective education ministry, shortage of facilities for the jawans fighting on the border, improper behavior of the members in our Legislative Assembly, over dependence on reservation and quota system by our parties to grapple power, liberal outlook towards our neighboring countries, overrated opinions by our netas, the goons being given tickets to contest elections, cases pending against politicians and their henchmen being inefficiently dealt with or hushed up owing to bribery and other malpractices, people’s taxes being inappropriately spent on the comfort and security of politicians, and many more which I may be forgetting at this stage or am unaware of.

But, then there are solutions to all if we just decide to deal with them rather than wait for some angel to fall from Heaven and do the needful for us.

The issues are at hand; let us deal with them and solve them. We just need to change our outlook and do away with our lethargy. Let us stop looking at the things as they are and concentrate on how they should be. Accepting our faults and acknowledging the need for change is the desire of the hour. Tolerance may be good but being intimidated is bad.

Let us raise our bottoms and make a move. The society will conscientiously follow us. But, we must be the first to make a move.

Jai Hind!!!

Freedom with its meaning changed

Khudiram Bose just before his hanging. Khudiram Bose -- a freedom fighter of Bengal who laid down his life just to say his country free.

There was a time when freedom fighters went against the odds and gave their lives for freedom of our country. Peaceful protesters boasting of the spirit of non-violence paraded on the streets while the people looked up to them as saviors and their leaders. The phalanx of people held to each other with the common aim of freedom resurrected our nation from the clutches of the British Raj. After so many years, we see the same peaceful march of people to attain freedom not of the country but to reclaim the roads for our women. We were not safe then, we are not safe now either. We were killed by the foreigners then; we are killed and mutilated by our own men now. Our women feared the pierced gaze of the British then; our women fear the penetrative gaze of our men now. Our women feared sexual harassment from our invaders; our women fear offensive behavior and tormenting stare and intentions of our men. All these force us to think as to whether we are really free. As Guruji had dreamed of:

Where the mind is without fear

And the head is held high.

May be we have to still wait for that day to come, that day to arrive, and that day to give us peace and freedom of our soul.