The safety of Mumbaikar – A pipedream or distinct possibility?

Delhi was historically invaded by outsiders several times in the past as symbolic capture of Indian Territory. Mumbai has been invaded by outsiders several times in the last two decades to weaken the governance, adversely affect the investor sentiments and to lower the morale of Mumbaikars. Certain elements across the border with fanatic attitudes and abnormal priorities carry out serial blasts, which as a direct result, affect only the innocent citizens. Many bread earning members of the families lose their lives / livelihood during such incidents causing much more grief to the surviving members.

On one hand we say India is a fast developing economy, its software prowess in incomparable, its human resources are far superior to any other nation and on other side, we are not able to ensure just a safe life for the residents of its commercial capital. Anytime, anyone comes from anywhere and plants bombs at crowded places. This has happened not one or twice but many times during the last two decades. The irony is that nothing substantial is being done by the decision makers in Mumbai / Delhi to prevent this from happening again and again.

Let us think for a while, who is doing all this and for what? Our neighboring country, which is neck deep in trouble due to myriad of internal issues, has to show its desperation somewhere. But that does not mean that for satisfying the devilish intentions of few handfuls of leaders with distorted mentalities across the border, some innocent lives should be periodically lost in India.

If my neighbor’s child is not under control, he has no right to come into my house and create nuisance to me and my family members. However, if we had a neighbor like that, the first reaction is that we shut the door on the errant child. We do not allow the child to come in at his will and do whatever he likes. We guard our homes to ensure that it is safely protected.

This is where the difference comes... Between guarding our own homes and guarding our country. Our homes are our homes, but our country belongs to all, not only to us. And so, the standards differ. The day our politicians and policy makers start feeling our country as our homes, the situation would change drastically.

If we were to identify the reasons for the state we are in, following stand out as primary contributors for the state we are currently in.

Pathetic Intelligence:

The intelligence team has to be on ground at right places to collect the right information. They need to have contacts in various circles, informers in under world and advanced systems to intercept any suspicious conversations. Sadly, our intelligence is lacking in many aspects. The seriousness of our intelligence efforts can be known from the fact that we handed over a list of 50 most wanted terrorists to Pakistan asking them to handover these terrorists to India. And thereafter, it was noticed that some of the people mentioned in this list were either in Indian jails, or moving freely in India. Such mistakes put a question mark on the credibility of the Intelligence system. Repeatedly, our security forces get killed in North East region, by Maoists. Such attacks can also be averted with a proper intelligence system in place.

Inactive Police

The police needs to act tough against the culprits by catching them and putting them behind bars. However, the police have been time and again found to be inactive at crucial times. The worst part is that there are several allegations of top policemen to have colluded with underworld. The needle of suspicion in recent killing of a journalist in Mumbai had also been pointed at a senior police official, who felt threatened by the journalist’s investigation revealing his connections with the underworld. Earlier also, some policemen were caught celebrating New Year eve with under world.   

Weak Judiciary

The judiciary needs to spruce itself to become more effective. The pending cases, particularly against the criminals causing danger to the public should be taken up in a fast track and the guilty punished immediately, so that the foreign ministers will not be required to escort them outside the country in trade-off for some hijacked plane. Kasab is living a luxurious life at the taxpayer’s cost for over two years now. A delayed punishment or a lighter punishment removes the fear of wrong doing from criminal’s minds. A punishment is not intended only to the person involved in the crime. It is also meant to serve as a deterrent to others, who are likely to commit such crimes.  

Politician’s insensitiveness

The politicians have always been highly insensitive to the people’s cause. They are only interested in their own welfare and growth. After every such incident, they visit the sites, make some statements in front of camera, like ‘We condemn it, we will give justice, and the guilty will not be spared’ etc.  Some of them cross the decency line by either changing dress frequently while visiting the blast sites, or attending fashion shows immediately after blasts, or worse, visit the blast sites with bollywood producers.  

PEOPLE OF INDIA

The last but not the least point lies with the people of India. So far, they have not used the power properly. Rather, they are not even aware that they have such powers. In the last few months, the entire Arab world has crumbled under people power. The regimes which have ruled unilaterally for decades are falling down like a pack of cards. A group of people at Tahrir square for 18 days brought down Hosni Mubarak’s rule for over 30 years. 

When the long established dictatorships can lose power, the democracy is far delicate to defend itself in face of a conflict with the people power. People can make or break governments. If every citizen makes a conscious decision to vote the right candidate in every election, India can change within 5 years. We need all scientists and economists like Kalaams and Manmohans to lead our country.

We all need to not just vote but also vote consciously. Till such time we do not change our voting pattern, we are going to get ruled by same breed of politicians. The Chinese definition of Insanity is ‘Doing same thing again and again and expecting different results every time.’

Finally it is our choice – we want to be ruled by likes of Kalaam or Kalmadi. If majority of us chose all Kalaams, then there is no need to convert the parliament into a Tahrir square.

Otherwise, yes.  

The News Channels – More of Sensation and Comedy than Truth..!

Once upon a time there was a king who employed some informers to keep him updated about the important happenings in his kingdom. They used to go around and provide him all important and relevant information. Everything was going on well, till he started competition among the informers as to who can provide more information, that too faster. Also, who provides him the information first.

This created a sense of desperation in the informers and they started looking for any information. To keep up their jobs, they started reporting trivial and irrelevant information to the king. The king got irritated and questioned them on their capabilities of providing quality information.

The real issue here is who was responsible here for the dilution of the information? Was it the king or the informers?

Similar is the fate of our News Channels. Today, we have around 70 odd news channels, all competing with one another on showing live news on 24 X 7 basis. What news can they show, when there is nothing significant happening every minute? So, whenever there is no news worth reporting, they start reporting trivial news like say monkey menace in some town, traffic jams due to rains, a protest rally by some inconsequential group in a small town, or a comment made by some panchayat level politician.

Among the funniest news items shown, more are from those Hindi news channels who claim to be the leaders in this business. One such news item ‘Yamraj se mile Gajaraj’ was on a person by name Gajaraj in Bihar who was declared dead and was subsequently found alive after nearly three hours. When questioned what he felt during this period, he said that he went to Yamlok, met Yamaraj there and after knowing that it was a case of false identity, he was sent back to earth. The reporter was asking him in detail about the experience like who else were there, how was Yamaraj’s office, how they were dressed etc. And the channel ran this news for full three hours during prime time. Later, someone (from a rival channel) gave the news that this person was a habitual drinker and usually speaks incoherently when drunk. 

The other program that amuses me is the one on horoscopes. Many Hindi news channels show these programs in the morning, as though scores are people are waiting for the astrologer to say some good words about their zodiac sign and give them green signal for signing new contracts. The actual fact is that these astrologers are themselves not sure whether the channels will pay them for their services regularly. One channel even organized a debate between astrologers and people who did not believe in astrology. And these participants debated fiercely throughout the program, as though the various planets would take the astrologer’s orders at the end of the show, on which way to influence lives of people. It appeared more like a comedy show rather than a serious discussion.

Then there are those crime related programs, which try to show the news in a much more sensational manner than the actual incident. The anchor is usually a person with pony tail, whose hand springs to shoulder level at the end of every sentence with index finger pointing towards the camera, as though he is threatening the viewers that if they change the channel he will kill them. He often uses very strong words to describe the incident. His ‘Josh’ is so much that, if technology permitted, one day he will come out of TV and start harassing everyone in the drawing rooms watching his program.  

These days, there is a trend of inviting some speakers from different parties and engaging them in a debate. The anchor usually acts in such cases as though wisdom is his birthright and he has an uncanny skill of analyzing critical national issues. This tribe is also characterized by the habit of interrupting a speaker while answering first question and ask a second question. The objective in many cases is not to know the answers, but to make the viewers aware of the infinite intelligence of the anchor in asking such tricky questions. The topics and the participants are carefully chosen so as to generate some heat during the discussions / arguments. During one such discussion on a Telugu channel, the arguments got so much heated that two of the participants from rival parties started physically fighting and throwing blows at each other. The program had to be stopped abruptly for safety of the other participants and the anchor and also to save the furniture of the studio. The irony is that, that program got the highest TRP on that day, as people wanted to see the ‘real action’.

Another favorite emerging topic of these news channels (when there is no real news happening), is about the global warming. They show some clippings from movie 2012 and scare the people predicting wildly about the impending doomsday of this world. They talk about wild fires in USA, or floods in Europe, or Landslides in Philippines and relate it to the imminent threat of nature. Graphically, they also show tectonic plates moving under the earth causing Tsunami, or the volcano erupting somewhere.

The standard of a channel can also be gauged from the type of advertisements shown on the channel. On Standard English news channels, one will never see the advertisement of people using a particular brand of undergarments being given preference in a queue or being allowed to pass through before transport minister’s cavalcade. The ironic fact is that there is a huge customer base in rural India, who watches the Hindi news channels, who will buy in the concept shown in such advertisements.  

‘Peepli Live’ was one movie which has shown the true colors of News reporting as it exists today. The entire political system gets polarized about whether the central character in the film, Natha, should commit suicide or not. And all the news channels gather in the village around his house to telecast any action which might happen there. No one wants to miss the opportunity of showing something unusual. Sadly, no one is really worried about Natha’s life.

However, sometimes the enthusiasm to show the live action can create serious problems, as was witnessed during the 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai. Towards the end of 72 hours operation, many channels have shown the live action of commandos descending over the buildings in which terrorists were holed up with hostages. This move was later ridiculed as many realized later that the masterminds of the terrorists were sitting across the border and watching news channels. They were giving the terrorists a live commentary of the commando’s moves and advising them their next actions. This was disastrous reporting, to say the least. 

Never was the credibility and respect of journalism lost so much, as it happened during the Nira Radia tapes expose. The senior journalists like Vir Sanghvi and Barkha Dutt were heard discussing with Nira Radia, and taking her advice on how to present opinions on some national issues in their most popular programs. These journalists actually created programs favoring certain personalities / parties and influencing the opinion of large number of people who watched their shows. After that episode, how will anyone believe what they are saying, even if it is truth? Their all actions become suspect. The negative impact of this expose was so much that it negated all the excellent work done by Barkha Dutt during Kargil war. She had earned much appreciation then, for going in war zone and live reporting from there. 

The over enthusiasm in reporting sensational news forced 168 year old Britain’s Tabloid ‘News of the World’ to close down after the incredible scandal which broke out last month. Their journalists went to the extent of hacking phones of murder victims and concealing information about their death, giving false hopes to relatives of the dead.    

With changing times, sadly, the news channels are getting more glamorized and sensational. Incidentally, these channels earn money through advertisements and a program attracts advertisements based on TRPs.

Unfortunately, majority of the audience is interested in watching sensational news rather than correct news. And that is what they will continue to get. 

Luck..!

On a dark night amidst thunderstorm and heavy rains, a group of 20 people stood shivering under a huge tree just outside a village to protect themselves from the rain and frequent lightening. The lightening was so fierce that during the momentary flashes, each one of them could see the fear writ large on other’s faces. They were worried that the lightening could fall any moment on the tree and all of them would instantly die. There was no immediate escape from this emergency situation. All they could do was to pray god and hope for the rain and thunder to subside, which would enable them to move to safer places in the village. However, the situation seemed to be getting worse every minute.

Under severe adverse conditions the mind goes numb and people start relying only on prayers. They try recollecting the blessings earned by them over the years. Soon, they started talking about how lucky was everyone in the group. Someone added that such situations were created by the God to punish the sinners. They concluded that the most unlucky among them would die today. But the question was how to identify that unluckiest one? And if he were to die, why others should die with him, for the lightening does not differentiate between the lucky and the unlucky.

So, they all decided that in order to separate the lucky ones from the unlucky one, each one of them would walk to another big tree some 200 yards away. Thus, it would be easier for god to strike the lightening on the other tree, as soon as the unlucky one gets under that. That was the only way, they all agreed, to ensure that the innocent does not get punished. They were very reluctant at this idea, but had no better option, because this proposal gave them at least some hope than the status quo.

After much hesitation, one of them bravely started walking across to the other tree. He reached there, stood under it for 2 minutes, giving the god enough chance to punish him for all his sins. Nothing happened. He slowly walked back. There was a spring in his steps while walking back, as it was almost certified that he was not the unluckiest one, who had to die that day. He returned to the group victoriously and had a faint smile too on his face at the relief granted to him by the nature.

The second one went and came back.. then the third one.. and soon 19 were finished. They all came back safely unhurt. Nothing happened to any one of them. The last one was terrified. He was very reluctant to walk across. However, under the mounting pressure of the group, he took his first step towards the other tree. With every step, his heart was thumping harder. He was seeing death in front of him, just few steps away. However, he had no choice. His prayers were continuing subconsciously hoping that his some stray blessings would rescue him today. Finally he reached under the tree. The 19 people were waiting holding their breath to see the unfortunate spectacle of seeing a person die in lightening under a tree.

And.. the lightning struck followed by a huge thunder… All of them knew this was the moment..

And the ‘unlucky’ person under the other tree… could not believe that the lightening had struck the first tree killing instantly 19 people under it.

The unbecoming moments..!

Our ancient scriptures have laid great emphasis on controlling our mind. Because, the mind is subjected to stress and strain every minute due to what goes inside and outside the mind. While the outside events are generally not controllable, it is the ability to control inside, which differentiates the ordinary from extra-ordinary.

The mind usually acts based on different emotions of Lust, Anger, Arrogance, Love and Hatred (Kaam, Krodh, Mad, Moha and Matsar) acting in different proportions and intensities. Greed (Lobha) and fear (bhaya)are common outcomes of mixture of these emotions. However, when any one or more of these takes control over a person intensely even for a moment, something disastrous happens. He is most likely to do something, which he never imagined he would do in his right senses. The person could be otherwise very balanced in nature and mature in his thinking, but in front of any of these strong impulses, he becomes very weak and vulnerable.

And no one is exempt from this phenomenon. Here we take a look at some of the popular figures of our times, who acted under influence of one or more of these emotions and did something which negated the entire good work done by them till then. They have nothing else but to repent now, as the time never rewinds itself. (Again, it is much debatable topic whether it is a boon or a bane that the time does not rewind itself… think about it.)

Indira Gandhi

Pushing the military in Golden temple was her last major decision, which cost her life. True, the sikh terrorism was a serious problem then, but there could have been better solutions. She was overcome by the feelings of Arrogance of power when she took this decision.  

Narendra Modi

The Godhra riots have left deep scars on minds of people. These scars are very difficult to erase even after so many years. Added to that, the recent reports suggest that vital evidences have been erased by the government in 2007. This has cost him the popularity, which he would have otherwise enjoyed as a modern leader, taking the state to new heights in terms of development and growth. His role during the riots could have been triggered due to a mix of Arrogance and Hatred against a community. This has cost him his position as a true secular leader of national stature.

Uma Bharati

6 years ago, in a fit of rage, she challenged LK Advani to take action against her, in front of the media, and walked out in defiance. Later we know what happened to her. She has returned now to the mainstream, but lost her seniority in party, image in the political arena and popularity among masses. God knows whether BJP needed her or she needed BJP, as both are currently not in a very comfortable position for various reasons. One thing is sure, that her act in moment of anger has not done her any good.

Bangaru Laxman

As a BJP party president, he accepted Rs. 1.0 Lakh while sitting in his office during a cleverly managed sting operation. He had no option but to quit the post. A careless moment of greed put him down and finished his otherwise unblemished career.

Vilasrao Deshmukh

He went along with Ram Gopal Verma to the Taj Hotel immediately after the terrorist attack of 26/11. Had he visited alone, it would have fetched him much more respect as a caring CM, but to take along a bollywood producer was diluting the seriousness of the issue. The probable reasons he did this is because, in return he expected some roles for his son in future movies of RGV. So, love for his son took over his sensible reasoning skills at that moment. This cost him his position as CM.

RR Patil

While the fire of the 26/11 terrorist attack was still not put off completely and people had not yet recovered from the shock, he replied to a journalist that, “Bade bade shaharon me aisi chhoti chhoti baate hoti hai”. People were enraged with his insensitivity and it cost him his position of home minister. The one moment of arrogance of power resulted in his downfall.

Ashok Rao Chavan

He very well knew that Adarsh society was being constructed for the families of people who lost their lives in Kargil war. In spite of that, gifting flats to several of his relatives including his mother-in-law was definitely not a wise thing to do. It must be his love for his family, which made him do this. It cost him his position as CM.

ND Tiwari

He has faced the worst ignominy at a ripe age of 80+. The sting operation telecast on a Telugu channel in Hyderabad while he was a governor of AP, would put to shame any respectable person. No wonder, he had to literally run away almost uninformed from Raj Bhavan to Dehradun. The troubles, however, did not stop for him. His some earlier sins are also propping up, making his life more miserable. It was lust all through, which put him down at the fag end of his life. The ‘character dheela’ song suits him perfectly.

Suresh Kalmadi and A Raja

A normal person stops eating when his stomach is full.  However, when a person continues to eat, then he is known as Kalmadi or Raja. It is the greed which cost them their balance political careers.

Baba Ramdev

On 4^th June at midnight, fear gripped him for few moments. And his actions in the next few hours  dissolved the entire hype created by him over last few weeks. Had he stuck to his ground in those moments, the story would have been entirely different today. This goes down in the history as one of the best opportunities lost by an individual to influence national politics. This also shows that one has to have the patriotism in his blood to stay there. One cannot pretend to be patriotic. Unless he had something to be afraid of, why did he run away from the scene? Satyagrahas are not performed in this manner. India would not have attained freedom even today, if the people involved in freedom struggle had run away like him. After that episode, he is more popularly known as PC Baba, which is Press Conference Baba.

Sachin Tendulkar

It shall always remain a mystery as to why he had to sell off a precious gift, which he used so lovingly all these years. A gift is always given with love and has to be cherished by the receiver. This incident has undoubtedly put a dent on his reputation and image. There could be some justifiable reasons, but till those reasons become a public knowledge people are bound to criticize this move.

Mayawati

She is currently in the process of making such moves, which will dethrone her in the next elections. She has arrogance of power and a feeling of invincibility in her mind. The scam epicenter has shifted from union cabinet to UP government these days. It is much more sinister with all kinds of crime committed in the state brazenly. Unfortunately, any questions raised by anyone on her government are simply ignored and disregarded. And that will lead to her downfall.

Rahul Gandhi and Digvijay Singh

Children do not have emotions. When they grow up, we can discuss about them.

Should the law be blind, totally?

Long time ago, there lived one fisherman by name ‘Valya’. He used to rob passersby in a nearby jungle to eke out his living.

One day, he caught a sadhu and asked him to handover all the valuable he had.

The sadhu asked him, “ Why are you doing all this?

Valya replied, “ I am doing this to support me and my family. “

Sadhu then asked him, “Does your family share your sins which you are accruing as the result of your means to support them?”

Valya thought for a while and said, “Of course. They do.”

The sadhu advised Valya, “ Ok then. You may rob me. But please, first go home, confirm that your wife and children are willing to share your sins and then come back to take all my belongings. I shall wait for you here.”

Valya agreed to sadhu’s proposal and went home.

However, when he asked his wife and children this question, to his utter disappointment, they said him plainly, “ We are not ready to share any of your sins. It is your duty as the bread earner of the house, to feed us. It is your choice how you earn it. But when it comes to sharing your sins, sorry, we shall not.”

This transformed Valya and he later became Sage Valmiki, who subsequently wrote the epic Ramayana.

Recently, a similar incident took place in Patna where surprisingly, in a stark contrast to the above story, the younger brother was prepared to pay for the sins of elder brother. In today’s world, when everyday there are news reports of brothers killing each other for property, this comes as a refreshing breather that such people still exist.

Manohar Verma from Naubatpur in Patna had a scuffle with a villager, and villager filed a case against him. The court ruled in favor of the villager giving the verdict of a jail term for Manohar Verma. Incidentally, Manohar Verma was the only bread earner of the family. His going to jail meant trouble for all other family members as well.

He initially went into hiding to avoid the arrest. But when he realized that his arrest was inevitable, his younger brother, Guddu Verma hit upon a novel idea. He went to a court in Danapur, Patna and surrendered there as Manohar Verma. In absence of anyone who could identify him there, he was taken into a jail. He started living in Jail.

Everything was going well, till the villager realized that Manohar is still moving freely. The villager approached the court again with his appeal that Manohar is still not punished. The court investigated and found out the truth. Now, they have started a separate case of IMPERSONATION against Guddu. And in all probabilities, he may be jailed, this time authentically.

That raises a question.. should the law take into cognizance only the hard facts related to crime and not the circumstances or humanitarian factors while giving its verdict in any case? In this case, what Guddu did is actually praiseworthy rather than any sort of crime, for which he shall be punished now.

But then Law is blind. Law has to be impartial and unbiased. It should be applicable to one and all. It cannot be tweaked to suit cases based on personal preferences.

And it has to be that way. Otherwise, the courts would be flooded with fake cases to such an extent that one Guddu gets totally hidden in that quagmire, crying for justice. Remember that famous bollywood movie, ‘Andhaa Kanoon’, in which Amitabh Bachchan is falsely implicated in a murder case of a person and spends 20 years in jail. Later, it turns out that the person killed was someone else, and the person who was declared as killed was now a popular leader somewhere else. AB now kills him inside a court in front of the judge, lawyers, witnesses and challenges them to dare to punish him, as he had already spent 20 years for same crime. Law is helpless in this case.

On the flip side, just imagine what would happen, if there was a provision to send someone else to jail on behalf of the accused. All politicians would become absolute fearless in doing more and more corruption. They need not spend time inside the jail like Kalmadi and Raja, who are inside the jail, yet given a royal treatment there. The jailer of Tihar Jail was recently transferred, because he offered tea to Kalmadi in his office, and also because many 2G accused were found to be freely roaming inside the jail premises, while actually they were supposed to be under lock up.

This would reduce the national issue of unemployment, as all the employment agencies would be flooded with applications from thousands of unemployed youth, willing to go to jail on someone’s behalf.

All said and done, the ultimate truth reigns.. and that is, you cannot expect mangoes by planting a banana tree. As you sow, so you reap.