Tuesday, April 11, 2006

The Enemy Within...

India's biggest enemies aren't Pakistan & China. Although our crooked politicians (who have contributed in good measure to our winning a dishonourable mention in the list of Most Corrupt Nations), would loudly stress that that was indeed the case.

India's biggest enemies are it's social ills (but not one politician has the b*lls to put it to India's populace in those words), and the perpetrators of these social ills, our illiterate multitudes.

And if India is to become a safer, better place to live in, we need to battle this enemy first. If our cities are to feature higher on the list of most livable cities, we must have a populace teeming with knowledge awareness & better manners. The more paan stains we have on our walls & roads, the worse we will fare on international lists.
And this will not come about by embracing all that is ancient Indian as cultural heritage & treating it as sacred. This will come about by moving on from and by discarding ancient, obsolete customs and embracing new world orders.
And that will come about by going into the villages & teaching children & adults alike about what is happening in the modern world. And by changing the medium of instruction to a language that is far more modern in content & context.

Unfortunately a majority of the Indian population is anti-progress. They're anti-MNC, anti-globalization, anti-English education. Their pro-Swadeshi stand is misplaced patriotism. They listen to the wrong sort of leaders and cannot see that the only people who benefit from the populace remaining uneducated are corrupt rulers. (God...! There are so many things to thank for the Congress' being in power instead of the pro-retard (pun intended) BJP!)

Watch the news & you see a posse of Lucknow policemen beating the crap out of a single helpless student. And this is something the news doesn't need to show us. Everyday we see the illiterate policemen vent their frustrations on the hapless public they're supposed to serve in the first place. Why are incidents like this so much rarer in the Western world?

42,000 security personnel are being deployed to ensure smooth assembly elections in 3 Indian states. Why does India need 42,000 security personnel to be deployed during elections?

Read the newspapers and you read about Salman Khan getting 5 years in jail for killing deer sacred to a backward, minisicule community of Rajasthan. Poaching in India is on the rise, and it's common knowledge that poachers are getting away scot-free. But Salman & Pataudi are in jail. 2 poaching convictions will earn this executive & judiciary, respect in my eyes? Never! Their success with the other 40,000 poaching cases will! Their successful conviction of the murderer in the Jessica Lall case will! How do such petty issues assume greater importance that far bigger issues? How is my country so corrupt?

People spit on our streets & walls, people pee & shit on streets & walls in a country that where Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Where Brahmins needed to bathe if they ever got touched by the person of a Shudra (a menial worker).
Eve teasing & rape is rampant in a country whose "culture" boasts of worshipping women as Goddesses!
And nobody even steps up to stop & correct the offenders! So much for nationalist pride.

I'd really like to see advani take up issues like this on his so called "Bharat Suraksha" rath yatra. Their version of nationlist pride is jingoism! And everyone who opposes them probably has the right version in their heads. These are the people with whom hope for the nation lies.

There is another enemy within. Misguided individuals who take the wrong approach to bringing about change. I have dear friends who fall into this category. Friends who I love for a lot of other things, but cannot bear to see them mouth misguided lies. Imagine an educated, Bombay bred, pet loving individual loudly stating that Mahatma Gandhi was an ass & in part responsible for India's woes!!! Also stating that the only way to fix things was to work from within the system, with the corrupt bastards ensuring that they get their cut!!!
How does that change the system? How does that make our country less corrupt?
I wish my friends would respect their education and realize that historically any change that has come about has come about by a revolution. A sudden change that overthrows the existing system! The French & the Russian Revolutions, the American Civil War, Bhutto's ouster, Zia's controversial death, and Mush's bloodless but successful coup d'état... all change has come about through sudden not gradual revolt!
That is the need of the hour. And the only people who can & will bring about this change are people like us: educated, exposed youth. We cannot afford to fall prey to the beliefs espoused by the men who want the system to stay intact! Our future & the future of our coming generations rests on individuals who will bring about a revolution! Anyone who claims otherwise is inadvertenly becoming The Enemy Within!

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

PIL against the NDA regime for Tampering with History

Doesn't it offend enough sensibilities that the BJP-led NDA regime attempted to tamper with History??? They changed History text books in order to brainwash an entire generation. And they've gotten away scot-free!!!
  • Why hasn't someone filed a PIL?
  • Why hasn't the NCERT filed a case?
  • Why hasn't this matter been taken to the judiciary?
I'd love to see Murli Manohar Joshi behind bars for this treason. It's possible! If HKL Bhagat can be convicted for instigating anti-Sikh riots, it's possible that India will win this case too!
Come on! It's vital that this gets done! Someone should put a stop to this NONSENSE!!!

Reasons why the BJP deserves to fail

It's strange that in our country, whenever a social movement happens it's initiated by individuals like Medha Patkar or by various NGOs. Whether it is tackling the issue of caste killings in Bihar & Madhya Pradesh or it's the problem of Sati in Rajasthan or the issue of rampant rapes all over India; these social evils are being fought by NGOs. So called "Samaaj Sudhaar" organizations like the RSS or it's political front the BJP are nowhere in the picture. When it comes to contributing the improving the social lot of Indians, there seems to be no contribution from the BJP. They simply allow the evils to remain, letting the local police battle it out with no support even if they're the ruling regime.
In contrast the Congress focuses on Education at the grassroots level, more schools, grants to NGOs fighting these causes. The difference between the commitment to India is obvious from the electoral agendas of both parties & also by comparing the list of achievements of both parties while they were in power.
The Congress' approach is long term but one that will hopefully yield results once all of India is educated & developed. Once the common man is educated enough & is more economic-progress focused, he will be able to see through the antics of the BJP. That day, the BJP will be reduced to a 10 member has-been, struggling with very limited appeal, garnering 2 seats like the erstwhile
Muslim League.
I have a theory that excites me no end... Every communal voice in India eventually faces defeat & oblivion. Jaspal Rana, former ace shooter, Nitish Bhardwaj, former TV-Krishna and a couple of others joined the BJP. Despicable I thought at the time. But what gladdens the heart is the fact that today, no one knows where they are! India's ace shooters today are Samaresh Jang & Major Raghavendra Rathore. Men with no evinced political leanings. In contrast, Megastar Amitabh Bachchan joined politics and failed, but he returned to be as successful as he was earlier. The shiv sena has already faced an in-house revolt and is on it's way down. HKL bhagat has already been found guilty of instigating the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. (On that note, I'm convinced that one day narendra modi too will be indicted for the Gujarat carnage)
I like this train of thought. If my guess is right, the likes of dharmendra, vinod khanna & smriti irani are going to disappear into nothingness very soon. Forgotten!!!

Isn't our police force over-stressed?

Heard on the news that the Bombay Police was instructed to investigate the Wardrobe Malfunction at the Bombay LIFW.
Aren't their unsolved Murder cases to solve, missing people to find, intelligence to collect on possible terrorist activities? Don't constables die on duty due to overwork?
Didn't wardrobe malfunctions happen in America? Why doesn't the local police there investigate them? I wonder... Ah! I know! Because they're more focused on letting the police fight real crime. And the Govt. is focused on economic progress instead of protecting archaic laws!

What rubbish!!! The Govt. should be ashamed!

Why Sunil More should've gotten life!

12 years & a fine of approximately Rs. 26,000 is hardly enough punishment for a crime as heinous as rape. And since sunil more was a policeman, the punishment should be harsher. After all the Army doesn't rest at courtmartial. It tries & punishes as well. Similarly more should be tried not only as a civilian but also as a policeman and should get a combined much larger sentence. Life wouldn've been apt.
After all the victim is going to carry the trauma with her throughout life, so why should sunil more get off ofter 12 years?