An open letter to Neeraj Kumar...!

Dear Neeraj Kumar,

We were quite disappointed to see you 96 hours after the brutal incident, in a press conference. We could make out from your nervousness that you had called the press conference out of desperation, when the demands for your resignation were only growing louder by the hour. We expected that you would at least assure the people, whose safety is your prime duty, about the steps taken by you in enhancing the security of every woman in Delhi. Sadly, your entire talk was focused only on giving yourselves a clean chit and eschewing the responsibility of any sorts.

What frustrated us was the fact that you have shown no remorse on the incident happened, and rather only questioned back the journalists in your self-defense. Well, every person has a right to defend himself, but there has to be a rationale on your arguments. Since we did not find any of that, we are forced to analyze your utterances, in order to analyze your psyche.

You said that if journalists commit mistakes, does the sub-editor or the editors resign? It is a valid question, but the comparison is horribly wrong. If a journalist makes a mistake, the result is that wrong news gets printed or shown in media. But it does not endanger any one’s safety, right? But the mistakes committed by your staff result in someone’s death. What is the punishment given to the policeman who had killed Rajbala? It was a cold blooded murder by a group of policemen against an unarmed lady. We are sure; they are all roaming free till today. What punishment has been given to the policeman who has outraged the psychological modesty of a woman when he mockingly commented to his colleagues in police station, as to who would rape that lady? She was hurt more by that policeman than the person who raped her. He is roaming free. What punishment is given to the policemen who arrested an old man in August 2011 for no crime committed by him and released him within hours fearing a massive backlash of protests? They are roaming free. So, please don’t compare the policemen with journalists. They are two different professions.

You also said that it does not really make a difference whether you are there or not there and that if your resignation helps, you would resign a thousand times. Sir, we honestly appreciate your truthfulness. You have acknowledged the bitter fact that it does not really make a difference whether you are there or not there. The way ordinary people live in fear in Delhi, one wonders whether there is any rule of law existing in Delhi? All your policemen are busy only in protecting the rich and powerful in Delhi. Has any of your staff ever tried to find out the feelings of a common man in Delhi? Never! They look at common man only as a source of revenue by threatening them and collecting fines for small mistakes committed by them. Your staff takes advantage of the fact that the ordinary man abhors police department and frighten him further. The day an ordinary person does not hesitate to enter a police station, you can claim to have done your duty well. Till that day, you have failed.

Finally, you said that why should you be questioned for the bad condition of people? Agreed, we should not hold you responsible. But we would like to remind you that you are getting salary from the tax of same people. Your foremost priority should be to safeguard their interests. Here also, you fail miserably.

Till yesterday we were unhappy with your actions or lack of it… but today you have disappointed us with your words or the flak of it…!

In search of a ‘Compromise’ Prime minister…!

Since last few weeks, the debate has got heated up in the media and political circles about the prime ministerial candidates of UPA and NDA. Both parties are not coming out daringly in open to name any particular candidate. In absence of parties doing the honors, the media itself has declared 2014 as a Modi v/s Rahul election.

However, there are various facets to this battle of Modi v/s Rahul. First of all they cannot be compared. One is an accomplished leader with proven track record of development while the other is a young politician with no tangible credentials. However, Modi has a 2002 stigma attached to him which pulls down his acceptance among allies while there is no opposition to Rahul for occupying the post.

Let us analyze why the parties are not declaring their prime ministerial candidates.

NDA

In BJP, there is an internal power struggle which was largely responsible for ouster of Nitin Gadkari. More damage was done to him by insiders than outsiders in revealing the contentious matters relating to his industries and dealings. However, that is not an excuse to protect or safeguard a person. If someone has done a mistake, then he should pay for it.

The problem for BJP does not stop there. Rajnath Singh does not have any power to decide on important matters including prime ministerial candidate. He is currently just barely managing the party affairs trying hard not to antagonize any section within the party, and openly praising Modi.

LK Advani, who had long cherished but recently given up his ambition to become a prime minister, has once again rekindled hopes amidst the daily attack on Modi from NDA allies. JD (U) has also added boost to his ambitions by mentioning that Advani is more acceptable to them than Modi. He will surely throw in his hat at an appropriate time. And his expectation would be that, at that time, whoever is opposed to Modi will automatically drift towards him.

Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitly are not so ambitious to aim for that position as yet, because they know their limitations. While Sushma gets some feelers from Shiv Sena intermittently about their support for her candidature, she knows that it is more because of their antipathy towards Modi than any kind of love for her. And Arun Jaitly shall be bidding his time and building his image for the 2019 elections. He is currently an under rated leader because of lack of any mass base for him.

One thing common for all BJP leaders is that they are all worried in their minds about Modi’s autocratic functioning style. Now whether this is an image created or he truly works that way is still unknown, but this one factor has prevented the party from naming him as yet for the position. Modi needs to take some immediate steps to remove such image from minds of all other senior leaders for developing a trust between them.

So, in a nutshell, the BJP leaders and allies are really not worried about his ‘communal past’. They are fully aware of his ‘progressive and developmental present’. They are only worried that once he becomes Prime minister, he may take unanimous decisions like once Indira Gandhi did without consulting others. This is their real worry.  

UPA

The problems of UPA are entirely different.

Rahul Gandhi has two options currently in front of him. One of them is to ‘accept’ the ‘overwhelming request’ from party workers to become prime minister and be vulnerable for onslaught from opposition on his inadequate knowledge and capabilities, or ‘sacrifice’ the post to someone else and get a ‘saintly’ image like his mother and enjoy the power. The problem is, it is difficult to know whether he understands these two options in front of him along with the risk – benefit analysis associated with each of the option. His limited interaction in public domain so far does not give any indication about the depth of his cognizance of these matters.

Manmohan Singh is in the news lately for uttering (finally..!) few words about his possible continuation in office for a third term. These statements do not have any weightage, since he is not the decision maker in the first place. Moreover, Congress would try not to make him the mascot of the party as his image has been tarnished beyond repair in the last couple of years. He is the biggest casualty of Congress, who is expiating for the sins of all his ministers. He is also on the wrong side of his age for staking any claim for the third term.

In absence of these big two candidates, the only third possible choice is Chidambaram who is consciously and meticulously building up his image for last few months though reforms and remaining silent on controversial issues. He was mightily pleased when his name sprang up in foreign media some time back, as a possible prime ministerial candidate from UPA in 2014.

The problems of Congress start from here. All the second level leaders in Congress like Salman Khurshid, Anthony, Kapil Sibbal, etc have no issues in bowing down to any Gandhi, but they would have stiff resistance to accept any one among themselves as their leaders. This is the most difficult challenge in Congress. The issue gets compounded because its allies also will not accept any of these second rung leaders as their prime ministerial candidates, because, they themselves are in the fray this time. Everyone knows that Mulayam, Sharad Pawar and Mayawati had openly stated their ambitions at some time or other in recent past.

Third, Fourth, and nth front

 The parties outside Congress and BJP are at their popular best in today’s situation. Each one of them is holding on to their fort strongly, like kings in pre-independent India. And funnily enough, in UP and Tamil Nadu, even if the popularity of current leaders fades, there is an equally strong opponent who is again a local chieftain. So, both Congress and BJP can never aspire to rule these two states on their own for several years to come.

The fronts formed by these outfits shall be inherently weak in nature, as they would be formed purely out of opportunism and compromises, just to share power at centre. Unfortunately, all such experiments in India earlier have failed to provide a stable government.

Expect the unexpected

The entertainment is not going to stop till the prime ministerial candidate is announced. The saga continues even after the elections till post poll formation is crystallized. We can expect some surprises to see who is ready to go with whom, just to share power or keep someone out of power. Don’t be surprised to see Congress and BJP coming together to keep the local leaders out of power, as some TV channels had predicted recently that the number of these parties together may reach the halfway mark. Some strange indications we can already see, like Mulayam suddenly starts praising Sangh founder and Advani, Modi praises Mamta in Kolkata, Nitish praises Advani, Mamata and Mulayam have broken up and patched up three times in last 6 months etc.

These elections shall be fought by every party against the opponent as well as against the rivals within the party. A very treacherous and dangerous game is on the cards where no one will be sure as to who is doing what…! It is a perfect recipe for Abbas Mustan if they ever plan to make a political thriller.

This is also the unfortunate hour in Indian politics when the choice of prime ministerial candidates is going to be more by adjustments and compromises rather than merits and capabilities.

The life of a cinema actor…!

A common man always thinks that a cinema actor is a blessed and very lucky person. The good personality, a neat appearance, the unfaltering diction with good choice of words are all endearing to people, who try to emulate them in their daily lives. Added to that, the jumping and dancing, fighting sequences, thrilling adventures etc make the actors look much larger on reel life than what they are in real life.

However, what people tend to forget is that these actors are as human beings as they are. The actors too face their failures in life; they have their own problems and their own limitations. However, most of the time, these remain hidden and hence not known to the public in general. And therefore, whenever such things come out, they become news for the media and the public.

Recently, Sanjay Dutt is in news on whether he should be pardoned or punished under the arms act. The supreme court after considering all the evidences and evaluating all the circumstances for last so many years, has given the judgment punishing him for 5 years imprisonment. Just because he has acted in benevolent roles in couple of films does not absolve him from his earlier wrong doings.

However, few people are imagining the pain Sanjay Dutt has to undergo as an actor in the next few days, when he shall be completing the remaining films, before he goes behind the bars for three and a half years. There would be several scenes in those films in which he shall be acting like a policeman or like a mighty person putting up a brave face in difficult situations. When he shall be shooting those scenes, his real acting skills would be tested. He would be required to be seen his normal self, enjoying on the screen, while in his heart he would be crying about his immediate future.

Sanjay Dutt is not alone in Bollywood to have undergone such a trauma.

Few people know that Shekhar Suman also faced a very difficult situation in his early career days on television. His son was in hospital fighting cancer and at the same time, Shekhar Suman was just getting some recognition in his TV serial ‘Dekh Bhai Dekh’. It was a tough call for him, whether to be beside his son, or to concentrate on a comedy serial to further his career. Finally, his son died leaving Shekhar Suman in a state of regret all through his life, for not being able to spend time with his son in his last days.

Everyone knows that Amitabh Bachchan suffered a serious accident on the sets of Coolie in 1982. He was battling for his life and the entire nation prayed for him for weeks. Surely, the fear of getting hurt must have been at the back of his mind for new few years, but he needed to appear his usual bravado on screen. And he did it so well.

Bhagyashri, the tender looking girl in Maine Pyar Kiya was in early stages of pregnancy during the shoot of film. Her husband, Himalaya was always behind the screen to monitor and ensure that she did not do anything which would affect her condition. More than that, the early stages of pregnancy means frequent nausea, vomiting etc. However, she did the entire movie without ever letting the audience know her actual condition or the conscious state of mind due to presence of her husband.

While shooting for Krrish in Singapore, Hritik Roshan once fell down from a high rise building. There was a safety net below which saved his life and any injuries. However, for the next few shots, he must have got scared during such shots, which he never made it appear.

Similarly, everyone enjoyed the ‘Mast mast...’ dance of Raveena Tandon in Mohra, but few know that she had a high temperature while the dance sequence was shot. Yet she appears very glamorous in the dance sequence with all the makeup and expressions.

The songs of suspense thriller ‘Gupt’ were very catchy and shot on exquisite locations. But few noticed that in many of the songs, Bobby Deol generally moved only upper part of his body, without moving his feet much. That is because he had to undergo a surgery in his legs and it pained him very much to move his feet.

Recently, Parineeti Chopra has mentioned in one of her interviews that the actors are required to work as per schedule, even if they are down with Malaria, cold, or any other illness. That sums up her feelings about the hardships faced by actors in this industry.

Some of the actors end their lives in a very pathetic manner evoking sympathy from the common man. Parveen Babi, the heartthrob of 80s, died of Alzheimer disease and confined herself alone in her apartment for almost three years before her death. A.K. Hangal did not have enough money for his and his son’s medication during his last few years. The Bollywood fraternity generously helped him then to survive. Meena Kumari died due to excessive drinking which damaged her liver completely.

So, all that glitters is not gold…unfortunately, the other side of a cinema actor’s life is often not as rosy as it appears on the screen…!