Anna, Ramdev and second freedom struggle...

Anna Hazaare is calling it second freedom struggle. Baba Ramdev is calling it his ‘Rashtadharm’ to start movement against Black Money. We all know what has happened and what is happening at present. We have seen lots of discussions on the cause and expected consequences of this movement. As the things are going by, we may get a Lokpal and a law against Black Money.

Although I support both these issues of Lokpal and black money, I have some doubts how much effective, the proposed solutions are going to be. I was having a discussion with one of my friend on Lokpal and I told him about my doubts regarding Lokpal. He said even if institution of Lokpal fails, this movement is successful in itself as it is spreading awareness about corruption. Youths are joining this movement. They are with Anna Hazare.  It’s a positive sign.

I agree but if we look back at Indian history, there is very less chance that Lokpal is going to be very effective let alone removing corruption completely. Many scams have been unearthed and consequently, many laws have been passed since independence. But, I don’t think our system has been able to punish any politician. I don’t know how Lokpal is going to change that. Lokpal has to work under the current system only and we know its speed. I don’t know how Lokpal is going to change that scenario. As proposed, it will be an independent body and proposed Lokpal bill provides sufficient cover for it not to be affected by external influences. Even then if someone is found guilty, is the current system capable enough of punishing him on time. Is there not a possibility that like all previous cases it will lost between different layers of judicial processes? And if our, proposed Lokpal system is not able to punish guilty ones on time, it’s futile to expect that it is going to affect corruption scenario drastically in coming years.

The second point, about spreading awareness among youths and common junta about corruption is no doubt a very valid point. It’s the first time we have seen such a large demonstration against corruption in years. But it’s another thing to take part in demonstrations and it’s totally different to practice that in real life. Can we say for sure, youths who are motivated to take part in this movement are going to refrain themselves from any corrupt activity? Is this movement going to motivate common people to stand up against corrupt activities in their day to day life? Some may say that I am expecting too much, but if the movement doesn’t motivate people to go against corruption in their day to day lives, then this awareness is of no use. We all know about scams and black money. So, just to tell about these should not be understood as spreading awareness against corruption.

Unless and until we take stand against corruption in our day to day lives, I don’t think any law or institution is going to abolish the corruption completely. Corrupt people will find some or other way to bend the laws. To say that we are corrupt because system is corrupt, is just an excuse to turn away from our responsibilities. There is an urgent need to change the whole social structure against corruption. If that is not done, I don’t think Annaji’s second freedom struggle is going to be successful. 

Dear Mr. Prime Minister

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

You don't know me. Like most of our countrymen, I am just an aam-adami. An aam-adami, using whom you have come to power. An aam-adami towards whom all of your policies are directed or at least you say so.  An aam-adami who seriously doesn't care about politics. An aam-adami who is so busy with his day to day problems that he seldom thinks about you and your policies. Frankly speaking, I seriously don't give a damn about who is in power, who is governing the parliament. Through our (me and people like me) cumulative experience, I can say that whatever you do in the parliament, our life is going to get harder and harder. We have understood this fact and we live by that. 

I never wrote to you before and I am not sure what good this letter is going to do to you. Nevertheless, here I am, writing a letter to you. Now, when I am writing, I will try to collect my thoughts, ideas. I will try to be short and precise but you know that I am not as learned as you are and we aam-adamis have a tendency to be blunt when it comes to express our emotions. So please bear with me. 

When you took power, your credentials and spotless image were publicised far and wide by your party and colleagues. As far as your credentials go, no one has ever doubted you. I can tell you from my experience, people like me will die to get a resume like you. I will also like to say that people like me had accepted your neat and clean image. Although I can't be sure of others, but somehow I could never take you in the role of a prime minister. And now when you are in your second term, my doubts are being validated. 

Mr. Prime Minister, I am sorry to say, but in my opinion you never acted like a prime minister. I don't understand the complexities of a PM office but one thing which I understand and which is one of the basic defining qualities of a Prime Minister is that he should be a leader. He is supposed to lead his government and his country. But from the very first day you never acted like a leader. You were never able to control your colleagues, your party, government and its supporters. In the first term you were with the Left, which in its entire life has done nothing except oppose anything that is good for the aam-adami. I can understand that it was a political compromise but you were supposed to reign them. But like all other instances, you failed. In your own government, Arjun Singh created a controversy which I am sure you didn't approve of, if I am right considering your statement in various newspapers, yet again you failed to control your colleague. You became the first prime minister in whose tenure, there were two poles of power at the national level. It doesn't take a PhD from Oxford to understand that all practical decisions were being taken from 10 Janpath Street. 

Nevertheless, you came to power for the second time. I thank to my countrymen whom I never ever understood. And this time, you thought that you would break all the limits. You came in power using slogans for aam-adami and here again, we are seeing what is happening with the aam-aadami. Some of us forgot what onion tastes like. You had started NRGEA as the flagship programme of your government. But I don't need to say anything, as you must have read the world bank report. So much for aam-adami. But, no this was not enough. We all talk about corruption and to some extent we have accepted that as a part of our life. But I think your government has under taken to break all the limits. I don't need to mention all these scams. We all know. So much for a good, prime minister !

Whenever something happens, your party workers, your colleagues and some of us, start talking about your clean image, your honesty, your credentials, your resume. But Mr. Prime Minister, after all this, I can't say that your image is clean. Mr. Prime Minister, India is a country where having a degree from Oxford doesn't work. A person in a village sitting on a cot, can also give you some good advice regarding politics. So please ask your friends and your colleagues to stop boasting of your credentials and spotless image. Mr, Prime Minister, whenever something happens, I don't want to listen from you that nothing happened under my knowledge. Please, and when I say please, I sincerely say so, start acting like a leader. For gods sake, you are the Prime minister of India. You need to come and take responsibility of your government. You need to be leader. You need to control your colleagues. 

And in the end….Although in Indian politics we always take meaning of opposition in the literal sense, even then I would suggest you just try to learn something from Atal Bihari Bajpayee, Nitish Kumar and your die-hard enemy Narendra Modi. I am not going to say about their policies, what they did for the country. But one thing I can say for sure, they are better leaders than you. It’s not like that they governed with an ideal class of party workers, ministers and colleagues, but they were able to control them. They always came and took responsibility when something happened. They never said, “I wasn't aware of this and I will comment after seeing documents.”

Yours Sincerely,

An aam-adami

Kashmiri people should understand.. "Bhukhe pet bhajan nahin hota"

Kashmir has been a very hot issue recently. All these stone pelting, human right violations, killing of youths, atrocities by armed forces, all party delegations, demand of azadi, protection of Kashmiriyat have been all over the news.

But before writing anything, I would like to ask few questions....
Why the hell we hear all the bad news from Ghati(Kashmir valley) only? Why is there no problem in Jammu and Laddkah region? (may be because Hurriyat and other such leaders have influence only in valley)
What have they got after this stone pelting and long protests? What Kashmiri people have got after so many years of violence, protests? (only destruction of industry, infrastructure and killing on many innocent people--who don't care whether Kashmir is azad or not, whether Kashmir is in India or in Pakistan, their only concern is to arrange some money for their living ).
If made a independent nation will Kashmir be able to live peacefully considering, it is surrounded by Pakistan and China and its strategic important in any war in south-asia? Will it be able to defend itself if Pakistan or China attacks in future?
What about Jammu and Laddakh region? Do people of Laddakh and Jammu want to be part of any such Kashmiri nation? (I have serious doubts about it, given the situation of Kashmiri pandits and attitude of Kashmiri leaders towards these regions)

I understand that the situation in Kashmir is complex or have been made complex by various involved parties. There have been human right violations by armed forces. But its easy to write flashy articles about human right violations and Azadi . Its easy to discuss Azadi and Kashmiriyat, when you are sitting in AC and have a 30-40K computer with you. (Most of the articles about Kashmiriyat, Azaadi,popular on internet are written by Kashmiris who either are in abroad or in very comfortable parts of India.) Do they really understand the pressure on common people and armed forces present in Kashmir? (I would ask them who are writing such articles what they would do in these situations?)

There are criminal proceedings going on against many officers. Its not like for Kashmiri people that they are living under some British rule. They have all their rights and in some cases, special rights (article 370 and all). They live in India, a democratic country. If there is any problem, that can be solved under this democratic framework. Focus should be on making common people's life better not on making it a hell with protests and killings.

Those who are asking for Kashmir Azadi...what the hell are they thinking? Can Kashmir survive on its own? Does Kashmir have the capacity under these conditions to be sovereign state and maintain diplomatic relationships with other nations? All these Hurriyat conference and Arundhati Roy type of people...do they really care about Kashmiri people? The situation is much much better in Indian Kashmir than the so called Azad Kashmir (pakistan occupied Kashmir). I would like to ask to the so called Kashmiri leaders.. do they really represent the whole Kashmir? They don't have any support in Jammu and Laddakh region. They just want to create controversies and use this for their personal benefits. They have their children studying in abroad and they try to close schools and colleges in Kashmir.

Human right violations are black spots in any democratic framework. The perpetrators should be punished severely. But considering the pressure on armed forces, terrorism and situations in Kashmir...this can not be base for Azadi. China and Pakistan will never let the Azad Kashmir survive peacefully.
Those who talk about KASHMIRIYAT.... where was your kashmiriyat when kashmiri pandits where displacesd? Why no one talks about their problems? (because it wont give them publicity and media attentions)

Indian government should really do something for betterment of Kashmir people at ground level. Big economic packages are not going to help the state. The influence of these pseudo Kashmiri leaders and intellectuals should be eradicated. Common Kashmiri should be informed about their truths, so that they can not misguide people to carry on their selfish activities.

Some people think that they can fulfill the Maharaja Hari Singh's vision of making Kashmir a neutral state like Switzerland. In 1947, when conditions were favorable, it couldn't be made possible, then I think every sane person understands that this is like daydreaming now. As a person who is interested in history and love to read about it, I personally would have preferred this situation- Kashmir.... a neutral state between India and Pakistan, Paradise on earth. But thats not the situation. What is done in the history, is done. Our only way should be forward, betterment of common people's lives. We haven't invented time machine yet, where we can go back in past and change history.

There is saying in Hindi... "Bhukhe pet bhajan nahin hota"...so without any economic development, to talk about azadi is useless and foolish. All these people who are protesting for Azadi...should understand the truth and work towards progress of Kashmir. Because of their protests, the booming tourism industry is in disarray for again. All schools and colleges are closed. Who are they hurting?... Kashmiri people....the common Kashmiri people.

After all these protests,even if they get Afganistan type azadi, of what use will it be? ( that too, only by a handful of selfish people who uses this as their instrument, is wanted )

you and i in this beautiful world - I

You and i in this beautiful world,
You and i in this beautiful world,
green grass....blue sky in this beautiful world.

Whenever I heard this jingle, I always imagined myself traveling in some hilly region without any destination, alone, seeing-exploring each scenery, feeling everything that can be felt....

But the question is... "Is the world around us so beautiful where you can live happily... beautifully?? "

I will say it all depends on our choices. What we chose to think,to do makes us happy or unhappy. We may complain about opportunities, facilities, conditions... which may be true for some situations, but in the end it is our choices which make the world around us as we feel it. Conditions may be bad, facilities may not be found, opportunities may be lost but there is always a way to make you happy, to make this world beautiful.
So like me, don't imagine a beautiful world in living alone in some hilly region or leaving everything to explore something new. I am pretty sure there are many things in our day to day life which are worth exploring, enjoying. Actually these small-small things have the power to make our world beautiful, happy. Search for these things and make this world beautiful.

Why is SINGLE there???

When we click on someone's name or picture on orkut to see his/her profile, we find that some very important information related to that person are shown below his/her picture...1.) Name 2.) Gender 3.) City 4.) Country and there is one more 5.) relationship status. Now consider that Orkut and sites like this are called social networking sites. So Orkut thinks that these five things are most important(that's why they have been highlighted below your picture) to know by someone about you when you are going to make contact with someone online.
Now keeping in mind that Orkut is a social networking site, lets think about these five most important(as Orkut thinks) bits of information. I suppose we all agree that name is really most important thing about any person to be known by others who are socially active even in the least possible degree. So I think the place of name below the profile pic is justified. Even then I don't understand why people write some fancy names and leave others in a mental state where they struggle hard and use all online resources to figure out about the identity of the person.
Now if we consider the city and country, we can say that their place is also justified because we all want to know about the place of the person with whom we are making contact online. After that comes the Gender of the concerned person. I think it's very natural for us to have curiosity about the gender as we will decide our way of communication in that way. As we Indians try to use a very formal language with females, it helps. With this it also helps us in deciding the way we put our PJs during chats.
I think out of those five highlighted things, I have been able to justify the place of four. But what surprises me is the presence of relationship status. Why is that needed there? There can be many other important information that can be highlighted, like profession. But why Relationship Status?




Everyone can explain this in their own way. I will not impose my explanation to you. But put your explanation in comments. I think it will be interesting to see how it is explained by junta....

Whoever may be the ruler, I lose nothing thereby....

The great show of the great Indian democracy is on. Every one is waiting for the conclusion. Every one is curious about the end. Will it be a happy ending or a tragic ending ?As we know the three scenes are done and all of us are waiting for 16th May, when finally this play will come to an end and the mystery of 15th Loksabha will be solved.
At the same time another drama is going on in South Africa by the name of Indian Premier League. There was a time when South Africa used to remind us about Mahatma Gandhi, but in this summer it is being remembered as the country where IPL is being held as the first play took the stage because of security reasons. Most of us are watching this play live on our television set. The mystery of this drama, will be solved on 24th at 8038.34 kms away from Delhi in Johannesburg.

Now consider the situation in India....these two plays are keeping the whole Indian public, in terms of Indian politicians, AAM ADAMI (common-man) busy. Everyone is reading,discussing,forecasting..in short is trying to solve the mysteries. But we all know mysteries can't be solved like this. The ends will show us who have won and who is going to get the titles.
Consider, if we ask someone, in these two plays which is more important? Which needs more importance and thought than the other? Most of us think that the answer should be elections.

But something surprises me. Although most of us will answer for election but I am not seeing the same in reality. In my campus I am surprised to see the situation. I am a seeing everyone, talking about IPL and analyzing each and every part of the game. But election, I don't think anyone is even bothered to think about that. For them it's a dirty Indian politics from which they should be as far as they can. They can curse Arjun Singh for his new-new methods to destroy education system but when it comes to election, they are not going to even think, who is going to win.
I remember a line from Ramcharitmanas 'कोऊ नृप होऊ हमहीं का हानी, चेरि छाडी अब होब की रानी. (Whoever may be the ruler, I lose nothing thereby; for shall I cease to be servant and become a queen now?)'. It was said by Manthara to Kaikayi when she was persuading for exile of Rama. Now the same line I think is being said by most of intellectual janta in the country. I would say as this line cuased the suffering for whole Ayodhya, I think if this attitude our intellectual Junta continues, our democracy and democratic systems are going to fall and no one will be able to save them.

The Real Challenge Comes Now...

I don't need to tell about Rohit Kumar's death and what happened after that. We all know what happened and how it happened. It's one of most unfortunate incident that I have ever seen in my life and and whatever followed after that, I hadn't expected that from both the students and authorities. I am not asking that the reaction and actions taken just after Rohit's death were not justified but I would say whatever has happened at director's house was completely wrong and some students were acting without thinking. But that is a matter of discussion and everyone has his own thoughts,opinions.
But now when so many things have taken place....one of our friend is not in this world,director has resigned(although his resignation has not been accepted till now),DOSA has resigned and there is a series of meetings going on on both sides..authority and students, I would say that in all these things we should not forget our objectives.

I will quote what a faculty member said in a class-
"Rohit's death was a very sad incident and whatever has happened after that should not have happened. After this we are targeting B.C.Roy hospital, but it is not the only thing in which something wrong is going on. As this time something big has happened that's why we got to know about this B.C.Roy Hospital. So whatever has happened was really sad and this type of thing should not happen in future. But this incident should lead to some constructive and reformative steps. Students should not use their energy only toward BCRoy. Now time has come to make a proper plan,identify and solve all the problems otherwise something worse will happen in future and we will be in same situation."

I think whatever he has said is correct word by word. Now the real challenge is to channelize the student energy towards the solution of problems.

We should not forget that last year during NSS camp Anshu Gupta had died in similar condition. At that time also many promises were done but we all know what happened. What was done that authorities ordered all 1st year students to submit a medical form in which all the tests had cost around Rs.10000. I don't think even after that a proper data base has been made and even if it has been made seeing the functioning of system,I don't think it would be used at proper time. So at this time our main focus should be solutions ,proper & sustainable solutions.
Although this time the situation is not the same and everyone in campus is taking interest in the happenings following the incident.And also at authority level many decisions have been taken and I think they are more serious than they ever had been.(Seeing this I am even astonished at the fact that such reaction/matters didn't come earlier. We immediately forgot about Anshu's death. I don't know why student representatives didn't take that matter like this. If they would have taken that matter seriously and had the proper steps taken, we could have been able to save Rohit's life. )

I hope that we would not forget this incident in same manner like Anshu's death. No matter what happens we would do each and everything possible so that Rohit's death doesn't go in vain.