If what Ramdev Baba did was not right, then what Government did last night was a blunder! One would agree that the political aspirations of Baba made him to take a leaf out of the book of Anna Hazare as to pressurize the Government. Was it wrong? In a democratic state, every one of us has a right to aspire to be the leader. What if Ramdev Baba wants to become one? After all, his demands are in the interest of common public.
Most of his demands are cinematic but sensational and in India sensationalism sells. If Ramdev Baba has to take a plunge in politics, he has to face tough competition with bigger goons. I am pleased that unlike many other political parties who perpetually divided the citizens on the lines of region, language, caste and religion, he is not raking such issues to float a political party. He is using those demands that strikes chord with every middle class family of India. This is the clan (middle class families) that shies away from elections, good at arm-chair criticism, whine & crib but pay all the taxes through their noses! To create an interest among this clan is a great service to Indian democracy and if Ramdev does it I welcome it.
The Government decided to arrest Baba in the night hours when every one is asleep. Despite Baba being ready to get arrested, certain actions by a few policemen would boomerang on the Government. It is for sure, the supporters would have protested the arrest of Baba but our policemen had always other means to calm the situation rather than going for lathi charge in the wee hours. Why the Government should have acted like this? If we go by the theory of motor mouth Digvijay, the Government would have got scared of his gaining popularity and hence have arrested him and lodged him in a secret place.
What puzzles us is, when the Government allowed a similar protest by Anna Hazare to go on, they arrested Ramdev on the 3rd day itself. I do agree that Government has to be firm and cannot allow every tom dick and harry to black mail it. The question is, why can’t the Government give same treatment to one and all? Here again, let us go by Digvijay’s theory – The Government allowed Hazare because he was not threat to the ruling Government (the reason may be either the Government sponsored him to divert attention from other issues or Hazare had no political aspirations that would prove costly to the present Government) whereas Ramdev Baba made it very clear of his aspirations.
My theorization is, more than the Baba, the color of the clothes he dons created panic among the ruling Government and they decided to stop it. Yes, the puzzling fact is Saffron is a color treated as taboo by the so called secularists whilst it is one of the colors in our National Flag (nowadays the saffron is being replaced by Red in most places is another irony). The Government is aware that the public memory is too short and the sensation created would live for a shorter period only. That’s why they allowed the White protest to go on (Anna’s) while they curbed the Saffron protest (Ramdev Baba’s).
I would support Baba to Hazare because; Hazare wants authority without accountability whereas Baba is willing to accept the responsibility. None is aware about the financial support Hazare got to stage such a protest whereas Baba had that financial muscle. To me, Hazare’s protest was a fixed program and Baba’s was a planned agitation.
Enough of Indian politics – We can go on whining on it and the irrational, unethical practices followed day in day out. Today is World’s Environment Day. Go Green is the new mantra although most of us don’t contribute towards making the World Green.
According to the Pollution Control Board of India, the enemy for environment is plastic. This is a biased perception. We can’t imagine a world without plastics. It is not the plastics that litters but we, the people do. We do not know how to dispose waste. It is the failure of the PCB on teaching the public in waste disposal.
We allow dry cell disposal just like that, we allow Non-RoHS electronic equipments to be in the market, we allow general disposal of electronic equipments, we allow usage of R134 gas in ACs, we allow PU insulated products which are not HCFC free but we pounce on plastics every where! They are more dangerous than plastics waste. Plastics waste can be used for laying roads that can save a lot on tar-bitumen combine.
There are two types of plastics waste used for road laying – Dry and Wet. Dry is the recycled plastic powder mixed with bitumen and laid on the surface. The existing layers are to be removed in slabs and this can be used over it. This prevent increasing height of the roads (repeated layers is avoided) and water stagnation is prevented and hence longer life of roads. The grip of tyres on such roads too is good. Wet is molten recycled plastics mixed with tar laid on the surface. The properties are same. However, a Dry plastic is always preferable. Pilot projects of such roads are laid in almost all states in India and they were proved but the implementation is not done in full. To do this, we need to wriggle out of the paradigm we carry on plastics. Let this shift in paradigm start on this Green Day!
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