God Save India

It is politics everywhere. Every action of the Government is targeting votes, votes and nothing else. For the Government, welfare to the country means nothing. Politicians are smart enough to realize that Indians can be emotionally maneuvered easily. Hence they perpetuate the emotional feelings among the public and mislead them totally.

The recent announcement of awarding Hemant Karkare for the Ashok Chakra is one among such acts. In what way Salskar and Kamte did not deserve this award that Hemant Karkare deserved. I repeatedly mention here that none of these three police officers qualify to be called martyrs. They did not fight the terrorists and they were shot just like other ordinary citizens who were shot in CST or on the roads. Because these men were police officers, they are termed as a martyr that sucks.

I may be cynic but l I view this like this. Hemant Karkare was involved in probing the Malegaon blasts that coined a new phrase “Hindu Terrorism”. This phrase helped the ruling party gain ground that was slipping from under their feet. It is a different matter that this probe and its alleged findings gave a boost to Pakistan demanding Purohit if we wanted LeT terrorists. As a gratitude to the great deed of Mr. Karkare, he is chosen for the award. In all fairness, he should not be awarded, if so, then award the other two police officers too. In India, after all even awarding Bharat Ratna has become a political gimmick (awarded to MGR) so this is nothing.

When the entire nation is worried about the border issue, there is another border issue that rocks the nation. It is not from neighbor country but from within. With elections approaching closer and Raj usurping the “Mee Marathi” plank, Shiv Sena has found out that Marathis in Karnataka are suppressed and hence he wants the borders to be redrawn. What the heck is this? Mr, Balasaheb, If you say that Marathis in Karnataka are tortured what would you say to the plight that north Indians are met with in Maharashtra by your nephew?

BJP, a ruling party in Karnataka and an alliance partner to Shiv Sena in Maharashtra is sandwiched in-between. It has no spine to make Bal Thacrey shut his foul mouth. This is not a problem of Marathi-non-Marathi but problem of country’s integration. BJP hoping to rule the country should act in a way it wins the hearts of people even if it meant losing alliance partners. After all, they did not bother to lose Shekhawat or Kalyan Singh so why to worry about Bal Thackrey?

Personalities like Amar Singh make me wonder can educated ones make a difference to politics. This joker just to put Congress in a fix nominated Sanjay Dutt (who was convicted for aiding terrorists and was caught red-handed for possessing dangerous weapons) for the candidature of Lok Sabha. He went on to add that if Sanjay Dutt is ruled out, he would field his wife Manyata? What sort of democracy we are in? Are the people jokers or Amar Singh is? Is it not the high time that Election Commission came out with basic qualifications for a candidate to Lok Sabha?

I am perplexed why we Indians take pride in bragging about our poverty? If not why should the “premier-in-waiting” Rahulbaba took Miliband on a poverty-visit in his constituency? Can you imagine any other foreign politician doing this with Indians whenever they visit their country? Is there a country in the world that has eradicated poverty on whole?

Karunanidhi has started crying over Tamils again. He is more concerned about Tamils than India. Prabhakaran, as we all know (and so do Karunanidi) is an enemy to Srilanka and India as well. He not only killed more Tamils but also looted Tamilnadu. Enough of Tamil issue. Let us focus other issues like power shortage, drop in industrial investments and issues that concern Indian citizens and the welfare of India.

With regional parties mushrooming all over the country, the country lacks political parties that will have a concern for the nation. Even the so called Nationalist parties are playing second fiddle to these regional parties. It is highly unfortunate for a country like us. Why don’t we think beyond our caste, state, language, religion? Is it a problem with our people or the politicians? How long will we allow such things to happen?

Time to Blog - Irony of India

I spend almost 10 hours a day at office that includes my commuting time, seven to eight hours in sleeping. With remaining 6 to 7 hours, I spend with my family. Not to mention the daily routines take away 1 to 2 hours in this. No doubt my wife screams at me whenever she finds me sitting in front of my PC.

I just get hooked onto it. She claims, “I don’t know how many of them are reading it or even having a glance at it! You are sitting at it at the cost of your family interests!” She may be right however, every man has a bad characteristic in him and I have the weak point of sitting at net for hours! (Whichever that was left over)

Writing a blog is the easiest thing ever one had but I beg to differ. I always wanted to be different and preferred to convey a message across irrespective some one reading it or not!

I was going through the news of bidding for cricket players in its new avtar of IPL. I remember during my younger days, Kerry Packer was described as the villain of cricket as he pulled all the talent for money. Now the very version of Packer is bringing in lots of money for all cricket boards. Cricket was slowly taking the form of a baseball in the form of 20-20 cricket and the style of selecting teams now have emulated the rugby or soccer teams.

While the vulgar display of money was criticized from nook and corner, I had a different opinion on this. My kid was reading a story of slaves being sold in older days! Just listen through my ears, Are our cricketers are slaves? If so, whose slaves? If some one is paying an hefty sum to a single person, will he win matches single handedly (can he bowl, bat and keep wickets)? What is the role of teams then? If he did not perform will he pay back this money? From where this money will be collected – of course stupid public!

India Cements’ Srinivasan paid whopping Rs 6 crore for Dhoni but did not think it wise to have another ground similar to Chepauk in entire Tamilnadu or Pondicherry! It is the irony of Indian cricket. Had these gentlemen pooled in these hefty sum to build a sports academy all over India, that would have done a world of good to Indian sports but they are not here to encourage sports but to mint money!

Heart-burning news is the comment of Raj Thackrey. His comments convey it implicitly that politicians are above law and so are their activities. Imagine what will happen if these people were made to write laws! When the world is shrinking to a size of ball, Europe is considering treating it as a state instead of multi-nations; we are talking of multi nations despite being a single state. What is the difference between the Kashmiri or Assamese terrorists who demand a separate state and these Thackreys? Can they be allowed to contest elections?

Raj has drawn a parallel with Rath Yatra. Rath yatra was meant to mobilize a movement – to build a temple for Shri Ram on the place he was believed to be born. It was not meant to drive any Indians out of their place in the name of religion, caste, creed or regionalism! What Raj did was a crime! Now Bal Thackrey says Maharashtrians were tolerant enough that they acknowledged a Kannadiga Governor!

What a favor extended by them? Aren’t we in India? Did he ever give a thought that all non-maharashtrians got out of this state and vice-versa, what will happen to this state? Maharashtra slipping from the rankings of industrialization is attributed to the lazy attitude of Maharashtrians and their costly labor. Irony is that they are not realizing and are doing politics in this name!

Lalu has presented a budget. Good one as expected that too in a year when elections are expected around the corner! However, his gimmicks are getting exposed. All his fare cuts in selected trains (the list is yet to be finalized) and fare cut in second class (read not sleepers) are only superfluous. In no way, this is helpful to the middle-class people who used them the most!

It is not a great deal to show profits on books for a monopoly firm that has no competition. Still he is different because his predecessors were unable to do even this. As usual, Lalu has thrown light only on the populist measures and not on the technical part of it. He has no answers for the delayed projects (that would have saved us crores of rupees lost), clean stations, ticket-less traveling in northern part of India, capacity improvement, ex-gratia to accident victims (at tax payers money), etc., Good is that he had at the least raked up the public-private participation. When the world is moving fast at the pace of 300kmph, Indian trains still run at the speed of 40kmph. When will we improve these? What is the status of unmanned railway gates? Unless someone throw light on these issues, we cannot accept Lalu as a success.

Is it Regionalism - the irony of India

It is a different story today. Mr. Tejishwar Khanna, our Lt Governor of Delhi is under tremendous pressure from all corners as all politicians cutting across party lines are pouncing on him.

What did he do so? Did he do anything abnormal that Indians cannot digest or anything that is harmful to our country? If you thought so, then you, perhaps, did not understand Indian politics yet. All Mr. Khanna remarked is, “The traffic sense among North-Indians is bad as compared to South-Indians. They should learn from them so as to avoid many accidents that occur because of our lacuna”

Enough is enough now. All the politicians are up on their sleeves pouncing on Mr. Khanna for making regionalist statement. Are you laughing? If so, that is the irony of Indian politics.

I know and almost all of you knew that Mr. Khanna’s statement is not regionalist but a matter of common sense. He did not do any Raj Thackrey (refer my earlier blog). Still, surprisingly, our politicians, who did not find any fault with Raj’s statement what were worse than a regionalist statement and kept mum on that issue, are now dragging Khanna. They demand an apology from Mr. Khanna for making such a statement.

Every man has something or other to learn from the other he comes across. Still, Indian Ego does not allow them to accept this fact. If the traffic discipline is good at one part of India and not in other, why can’t we see this and learn? Why do we want to reject it in an outright fashion? Why do we act so hypocritical?

All of us knew that Delhites claim pride in violating law and I have hardly seen anyone using a subway to cross road in Delhi. They care a damn for the traffic laws and its signals and this is the prime reason for the numerous accidents occur in this place.

If politicians are so worried about this statement, what will they do if some one told that Delhi is unsafe for women as compared to any other part of India? Will it be considered as a regionalist statement?

I am at loss understanding these politicians. They should have protested to Raj Thackrey’s statement (that showed his immaturity) and hailed Mr. Khanna. These politicians should have impressed upon the basic necessity to common people after all it is for their safety. Instead they kept mum on Raj’s statement and pounced on Mr. Khanna.

But what can I expect in a country where the court verdicts against wearing of helmet (Pune). In all fairness, the court should have rejected the petition itself.

All it happens only in India!