Tuesday, November 04, 2008

So what’s the way out?

OK! Enough exposes about who’s fault it all is. Let’s look at what can be done to improve the situation in Bombay & Maharashtra. These are a few of my suggestions. Please feel free to add to this list.

1. We need equally strong voices from the other side. And politicians won’t do as we’ve already seen. We need the citizenry to speak up. While a Medha Patkar is as usual one of the first to speak up, she is a lone voice.

Commenters like akki have provided links to wonderful people like Mahesh Vijapurkar, whose views deserve to be widely disseminated, read & understood. Kudos & my respects to these people.

We also desperately need the Palekars-Paranjpais-Natekars-Padukones-Tendulkars-Gavaskars-Vengsarkars-Prabhakars-Rajanikanths-Mangeshkars-Bhosales-Nikhil Wagles to speak up & be heard. They enjoy an immense support base. People all over India & Maharashtra look up to them. They’re Indias Gems! I’d urge them to speak up in the interest of keeping the people of this nation together.

Of course, they don’t have to. They haven’t done any wrong, they’re not the out on the street, bus burning type of Maharashtrians. Why should they be defensive & speak up? I understand that mindset totally. It’s the same mindset that Indian Muslims stuck to for a long time. “I’m not an extremist. Why should I be apologetic? Why should I say or do anything?” As we all saw, that because of the intense propaganda & generalized hate campaign against them, they had to abandon that stance & speak up. And I’m glad they did.

Because as Edmund Burke said: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
And as Herr Albert Einstein himself said: The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.

Apparently education & exposure is no longer guarantees a mind free from misconceptions & bias, as yet another politician demonstrates again.

2. Now this one is bound to be controversial, but it’s one idea. If we don’t want more & more people to come into Bombay looking for livelihood & putting more strain on it’s infrastructure; stop creating more jobs in Bombay! No new jobs, no more migration!

Create jobs elsewhere. Invest elsewhere, develop other parts of the country.

3. Revive the Gandhian approach: We need more & more people to use Gandhian means of protest instead of the madness that is making India an increasingly unsafe place to live in. I read somewhere recently that the terrorist is a disgruntled nationalist, one who is at a total loss as to what options he has left to save his nation. Let more & more people know that they way is Sarvodaya & Satyagrah. Medha Patkar, Baba Amte & Anna Hazare are not enough. We need a huge mass of humanity speaking the language of peaceful means of protest! THAT habit is our only hope that will save us from people resorting to violence.

4. Educate the aforesaid politicians on World affairs. They’re all stuck up in state & nation issues. If they were more tuned in to World Affairs (or even HBO where I picked it up from!!!), these excerpts from Al Gore’s concession (to Dubya) speech would’ve hit home:

While we yet hold and do not yield our opposing beliefs, there is a higher duty
than the one we owe to political party. This is America and we put country
before party. We will stand together behind our new president…
… As for the battle that ends tonight, I do believe as my father once said, that no matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and
let the glory out.

Can our politicians not learn to put Country before Party? As far as I can see Gore Sr. was right. Al Gore may have been spared the ignominy that Dubya had to bear… of being called America’s stupidest Prez, among other things. Instead he will always be remembered as a Nobel Peace Prize Winner.

Thank you and good night, and God bless India. :-)

5 comments:

  1. first: mutiny.in is down. I got a database error. Too much traffic? Host it on ghs.google.com :). Ask me how.

    second: "Educate the aforesaid politicians on World affairs"
    Seriously? Are you so naive as to assume that the pols do not understand how the world works?
    They do, maybe more than you and me. At least the way they act seems to me that they have all read 1984, and are following the book properly. There is NO hope from today's career politicians my friend. Why change your product when your customers [the public] is perfectly OK with your current marketing tactics [hateful, fearmongering speeches, violent riots and inconsistent ideologies].

    If you want a better product, the customers have to ask for it. The only way the country will progress is if the electorate demands better goverment. The RTI act is a step in the right direction, but expecting the pols to "put country before party" without them _needing_ to do so is naive IMHO.

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  2. animesh,

    I agree with you. Someone did say that we get the politicians we deserve; but do WE deserve this?

    Aren't we the customers?

    I don't think I'm being naive here. Just hopeful. Is there anything else to do besides hope?

    You got any ideas brother?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am all for idealism and dreaming, if we don't dream what will we work for? Do read about this one person who has made me (and the World) envious and proud yesterday,

    http://shobhaade.blogspot.com/2008/11/hottie-or-what.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. On #1. I sometimes wonder, why most of our celebraties do not voice opinion in social issues ("...I don't understand politics.."- is common 'opinion'). I was thinking if our cricket team wore black ribbon in delhi test to protest and condole those who died in assam blast e.g., that would have made some impact. atleast this would have been made a statement like I care.
    On #3. Yes, Gandhi seems to be our only hope.
    On #4. Though, I do not support America as a state but I really appreciate the way their politicians address each other. Had our politicians followed half of what they do, we would have seen a much better society.

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  5. IHM,

    Yes. We must all dream. All great men have had a dream. Gandhi, Nehru, ML King and all other achievers were because of their dreams.

    I'm not personally fond of Ms. De, though she has been taking a stand on a lot of important issues lately. Believe it or not I used to find her too opinionated; but she has won my very grudging admiration as a celebrity who isn't afraid to speak out & use her celebrity for the right causes. I wish more celebrities were that responsible...

    Z@ki-R,

    Agree on all counts.

    ReplyDelete

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