What future holds for India….

So its been five years and I’m back ! not into blogging but I follow politics and its become kind of custom for me to write a post at lease on the eve of general elections. General elections 2024 have started in India and I’m trying to continue with this custom.

When I started this blog around say 15 years back, I was apolitical i.e like most Indians I had no particular ideology or particular political views. All I wanted like most Indians, was that  politicians develop the country and abide by probity honesty etc. 😊

That time looks like another life, another time, another country, another society. Social media then was much more pleasant, TV media much less nasty, people and masses actually cared about probity in politics and society. It was always people vs politicians. Noone was hurt when ANY politician or ANY govt was criticized. People were not  Bhakts of any politician.

Back then (or even 10 years back) there was no discussion on politics in friend circles, WhatsApp groups or in family. People who had interest in politics used to follow elections. It was more of a “news thing”. Elections happened as scheduled, political parties started campaign 2-3 months before elections, unlike these days when there  is 24×7 hour politics.  TV news was much much more decent, not running any agenda as such. Had debates on public health, employment, higher education, there was even investigative journalism and of course politics as well (but only one of the many topics).

These days, on the other hand,  everyone is talking politics all the time, people arguing, fighting over politics all the time, souring of relations over politics are common (unheard of in past). That way Indian society has changed for worse. TV news has been the worst casualty. In past, youngsters were encouraged to watch TV news as it was thought that watching TV news/debates will help in personality development, English skills , awareness etc. But now, TV news can’t be watched in front of the children. Now, TV news is finding, even creating communal news, headlines debates etc , all to polarize masses.

 Things have changed, society has changed, and for worse. Here in society I’m here not talking about masses, hard working people, small farmers, people doing manual labour etc. They remain same by and large. I’m here talking about educated middle class, especially in north and west India and to lesser extent in rest of the India.

Political polarization is at extreme, and things have come to such a passe that ruling party’s performance , even probity, even corruption or more heinous crime allegations on it /its politicians doesn’t matter. Those who have decided to support them do it unconditionally. It was NEVER like that in past. People always expected probity from ALL politicians and all political parties cared for this for this very reason. One corruption allegation (forget about molestation or rape), hell even one act of impropriety, and politicians were expected to resign and they did that !!

A lot has changed. Some of the things which come to my mind are

i) Niceties in politics & a section of society are sacrificed.

For example Indian president wasn’t invited for new parliament inauguration. President is the main pillar and part of parliament and President was not invited ! Sub Judice matters were not spoken about by politicians or media. It was a way to show respect the court and also not to pass any public remarks on the matter being judged by the court. Now politicians and even media openly discusses sub Judice matters and even pass their own judgements, which is many times done deliberately to create pressure on judiciary. In opposition ruled states State Governors act as political representative and make life of the elected government miserable.

Forget niceties, Even women’s dignity doesn’t matter. Women’s dignity matters only if they support ruling party, else it will be shattered. Even NCW outrages only for ruling party supporting women, and ignores heinous acts against women critical of ruling party. This is painful.

In Hathras rape case, police is accused to have destroy evidence by burning victims body before handing over to family. There are politicians accused of molesting Indian female wrestling players. What is disheartening is that there is NO OUTRAGE among the public. Partly because media deliberately suppress such news and partly because a large section of ruling party supporter has changed to this extent that they support ruling party IRRESPECTIVE of what it does. In past in any case of violence against women entire country stood with the victim, now they stand with political party and worse, indulge in whataboutery to justify present situation. Its sad and painful. In past people used to be outraged and take out candle light vigil in support of the victim. Now nothing

ii) Some politicians have audacity to openly garland and facilitate convicted rapists/murders/lynchers.  This was unthinkable in past. There has been horrible violence in Indian state of Manipur since 01 years now. Both state and center govts have failed to contain it. But no questions asked by  media and anyone asking is called names.

This also raises an issue with this govt, which is lack of empathy. It looks like pain or suffering of ordinary Indians doesn’t matter  to them They are only focused on votes which they get in Hindi belt states by doing politics of religion and distributing freebies like 5 kg rashion

iii) TV debates have turned into hate speeches. Communal slurs are common now. The difference is, in past was discussed in hush hush tones in drawing rooms is on Prime time now on national news ! an achievement in deed !

In past even anchors like  Arnab Goswami used to edit blatant communal statements . I remember Arnab saying in a bulletin that he had taken editorial decision to cut a portion of speech of a politician which had communal undertones , as it wasn’t good for society.

TV journalists are more aggressive towards opposition than ruling party representatives. TV news highlights every crime news in opposition rules states, while hiding those in  ruled by party ruling at Centre. When it has to show some when its not possible to hide, they blatantly save ruling CMs. Two examples,

a. When a crime happened in Rajasthan, TV new anchor was shouting at the top of her voice “Jawab do Ashok Gehlot “ ( be answerable Ashok Gehlot)

b. When it had to show a crime in UP where police was found lackluster it flashed “Police ka kam Yogi hue badnam ?”  ( Police has messed up but poor Yogi is being blamed ?)

Have also seen TV news channels ridiculing sittng home minister  of India Shivraj patil for changing cloths 04 times a day on a day of some tragedy. Unthinkable now.

Above shows what exactly is happing on “TV news”

iv) Sadly a section of hindus is made to believe that their beautiful and tolerat religion is represented by cow vigilantes or by those who dance and do aggressive posturing in front of religious places of other religions. They need to understand Hindus and Hinduism more to under our true essence.

Hindus have close connection with God unlike other religions. Hindus keep their own names on the name of revered Gods. Our Gods lived on earth, had earthly problems. Our Gods are one amongst us. We can worship, argue even get angry over our Gods.  We play roles of Gods in “Ram leela” since ages. Gods in Hinduism are unlike in ANY OTHER religion. That’s what makes Hinduism such a unique and beautiful religion which has no place for any fundamentalism.

v) Online abuses/threats is a model to silence civil society members who understand what is happening and try to speak out. Also message is sent by arresting celebrity children , so that all civil society members “understand” and keep quiet and let whatever is happening, happen.

Boycotting is a new culture erupted in last 10 years. A section of social media initiates trend of boycotting companies, people, products etc. based on any issue which is not in sync with the politics of ruling party. Can one even imagine, a jewelry brand ws boycotted for showing inter religious marriage, or even for promoting religious harmony, an actress called anti national and entire film was boycotted by this section for wearing orange color bikini. Leading Indian cricketer was boycotted and hated for asking people to celebrate safe and cracker free Diwali. Imagine, people are boycotting own Indian products or companies.

Even public figures, celebrities, actors, businessmen, sports icons have been divided. People celebrate them or hate and boycott them based on their political opinion.

In past it was only about people vs politicians. Now entire country is divided in two halves pro govt and anti govt. Nothing is spared. It was unthinkable even 10 years back. Such is the downfall in Indian society or a major section at least !

No body is immune. Only a particular political party and its leader is everything, whoever criticizes them is called names and dubbed traitor or hater. Even people who sacrificed their entire life for the social good, or even the national sporting icons or even freedom fighters , are abused even on a hint that they don’t approve of the this political party and its actions. 

vi) Since 10 years a narrative is being spread that somehow some Indians themselves are enemy of India. In past unity of all Indians was the buzz word. Govt of India ran many campaigns on “unity in diversity”. “Hind desh ke nivasi sabhi jan ek hai” was the theme.  

Now enemies of india are being searched in india itself. Mor often than not people critical of present regime are targeted as “anti national” or “internal enemy”.

Even universities, institutions, political parties are targeted and many  of them have stopped expressing themselves due to vicious trolling and targeting.

vii) Union ministers have on camera promoted quackery in the name of covid medicine. Unimaginable. In any other country it will simply call for jail term. Indian science congress, which used to be a platform for scientists and scientific thought was reduced to a circus (with quakes coming as a scientist and giving lecture how in ancient India people used to do inter planetary travel !) before being finally disbanded recently. Scientific thought and free thinking is being muzzled.

viii) Rationality is sacrificed through whatsapp propaganda. All kinds of bizarre and fake messages, edited pics, half-truths etc. being circulated en masse. Amazingly large number of people blindly believe in and forward all such propaganda without giving any thought whatsoever. Most of this propaganda is easily verifiable on internet through much reliable sources. It’s a mystery why these people don’t feel the need to verify before blindly forwarding. Such propaganda has helped brainwashing large number of people in blindly supporting ruling party and hating other politicians/parties.

Few examples, Taj mahal was a temple, Gandhi family was muslim, Indians used to do inter planetary travel, supreme leader stopped an international war etc etc etc, list is endless !

ix) Institutional collapse is accelerated big time. Even our much-cherished Election commission has succumbed. I couldn’t believe when learnt that ECI has snatched away political symbol of Shiv sena and NCP merely on legislative majority. While announcing 2024 elections, the even mocked people who have raised concerned on EVMs. Governors are not even implementing state government’s decisions, not signing bills, not appointing ministers (in TN recently) !

The less said about ED/CBI/IT the better. Even narcotics control bureau which no one knew existed has been weaponized. It has been used to arrest celebrity children, and this sends a message to civil society to remain mute spectators of what is happening in the country !

Government,  its institutions, its machinery and all its might has been reduced to a mere tool of a particular  political party to enhance its prospects and dominate the country. Professionalism of all major departments, agencies is killed. Everything  is reduced to politics. Agencies take actions, call someone for “questioning” give bites to media just to create headlines for prime time to threaten /target civil society  members or the opposition politicians.

x) Indian statistics which we were proud of are compromised. Many experts / economists have pointed out gaps and mismatches in the GDP numbers published. Like difference between GDP figures or GVA figures. But no one wants to listen. And if one raises something, one is declared anti national and jealous of India’s progress !

All information is curtailed. Inconvenient data has been stopped. Like farmer suicide data is no more reported by NCRB. And media is deployed to create an image of india becoming 3^rd largest economy and “danka” of india in the entire world. With no data or reporting, people in general don’t get to know what is happening. They may think hardship is on them only while country is doing very well and one day their turn will come. This illusion has worked for a decade now !

xi) “Videsh me Danka” is a theme much heard off in hindi speaking north Indian states. Each official visit of the PM is  carefully crafted with months in preparation. Maga events is organized on foreign soil on Indian tax payer money in which PM participates. Illusion is given that it is “danka” (glory) of PM. While there is no reporting or no question by media on what actually achieved during such foreign visits.

Most important parameter of strength of importance of country in the world is the passport strength/ranking. There  is no improvement in Indian passport ranking since 2014, so this mirage of indias power or influence in the world is not factual. But it works in govt favor in hindi belt states.

xii) There is a deliberate vilification of the opposition parties by the government & mainstream media. Past PMs gave respect to the opposition. Important bills were sent to them even when govt had numbers. All party meetings were common. Foreign dignitaries had a scheduled meeting with opposition leaders. Medi agave respect and coverage to opposition. Now media behaves like ruling party spokes person and vilifies opposition continuously.

In spite of all this coupled with sub-par economic performance and one of the worst job crisis in Indian history, How are they able to convince large number of educated middle class people (ie middle class people of North and west india) to support them ? Of course many of them understand whats happening still support ? One could argue that even among them large number of people don’t have time or interest to go in detail and believe on mainstream filteres TV media narrative. But there are many who understand it all still support the regime.

Have tried to understand the reason from some people in my circle who actually understand what is happening under current  regime and still support it. Upon detailed discussion the thing comes out is  “We support ruling party only because only they can save Hindus and our civilization” ???????????????????? Nothing else matters.

“but hindus have survived centuries of muslim rule in medieval period when there was no law, no constitution, then how can they be under threat now? These arguments don’t cut the ice with them due to some strange reason. Probably because humans are emotional people, and rationality is left behind when emotions take charge.

Even I am a Hindu, I don’t see any threat to Hindus , since last 77 years Hindus have thrived in India. From politics, to civil society to judiciary Hindus have dominated every domain. Hindus weren’t destroyed when India was ruled for 800 years by Muslim rulers, now in modern times when there  is democracy and rule of law, Hindus in danger ? I cannot digest it. I wonder how come anyone believe it.

There’s a saying in democracy one  can go far if one convinces majority that they are victims of minority and only one can save them ! this is precisely what’s happening in India. It is much easier to win elections on these emotive issues, based on instilling fear instead of hope, than to win elections based on hard performance.

One of the reasons it is happening is that, it is easy to convince ANYONE that they are the victim. Even most successful person in world can be convinced that he or she was or is a victim of something. So today, majority (middle class in North/west india) is somehow convinced that they are the victims of minority.

This is exactly what is happening in India but for how long ?

2019 General elections in India, Why are they so Important !

I’m not into blogging since 2009 now. In between I had written only one post in 2014 on the eve of general elections. Thus my last two posts were at the gap of 5 years each, incidentally on the eve of general elections of 2009 and 2014 respectively. So this year now again at the eve of general elections I’m writing this post to maintain my record.

Firstly a lot has changed in India in these last five years and sadly for worse. Social media has a big role to play in it. This change is the outcome of how politics has shaped in these five years. The ruling party BJP changed rules of the game in 2013 when they started their massive campaign for 2014 general elections. Before 2013, social media was much more pleasant and  TV media was much less nasty. WhatsApp was mostly limited to family pics and jokes. And then came the BJP and its campaign. All these social media mediums were full of political messages. Full of political propaganda. Full of Fake news and full of hate.

People in India were not used to the phenomenon of fake news then. A lot of misinformation was spread on social media as part of campaign, which people took for genuine information. The flood of fake news has not stopped since then and in fact 2013 can be called beginning of fake news revolution in India. I for one feel very strongly about fake news. I hate any kind of propaganda and misinformation. On example I would like to quote is the famous “Modi saved 15000 Gujaratis in a day in Uttarakhand floods of 2013” This “news” was videly shared on social media. This “news” played a major role in shaping Modi’s popularity outside Gujarat.Millions of people who heard this “news” and made positive opinion of Modi, could never know that it was a fake news !

The new government was sworn in May 2014. By then the social media was firmly a political battlefield. Each and Everything was politicized. How the PM Modi is standing, earlier PMs didn’t stand like that. At what position Modi ji is standing among world leaders, earlier PMs used to stand in the side.  These clicks were all random clicks, by choosing different pics one could just prove opposite point, but the propaganda ran unabated. During a TV debate in around 2016, a ruling party member said “Now Indian PM is respected around the world, earlier Indian PM when travelled abroad they weren’t even allowed to meet their counterparts for 10-15 days” It was blatant falsehood. But the anchor didn’t contradict it and said “Its fine but we are discussing something else  here” !!We started receiving daily messages on whatsapp and facebook that how India is gaining “respect” around the world which was not the case earlier. Modi ji himself said it during his speeches “pichle 2-3 salon se pure vishva me bharat ki jai jai kar ho rahi hai (Whole world is hailing India since last 2-3 years” It was pathetic and laughable thing to be said by a prime minister !

Twitter/Facebook  were becoming  nightmare by now. Anyone even mildly criticizing the government was brutally abused and trolled on social media. Such things were unheard of earlier.  There is a huge troll army propagated by the ruling party and instructed to attack anyone even questioning the government. There is a book named “I am a Troll” by journalist Swati Chaturvedi exploring this troll Army of the ruling party.Rape and death threats on social media had become  common. And now the most outrageous part, the Prime Minister of India on twitter follows some of the most abusive trolls on twitter. He is the Only major leader across the world to follow abusive trolls. Why he does it? Of course to show solidarity with them. This was a new low.

And then came the legendary “National-Anti National” Thing. Based on certain (tasteless) slogans raised by unknown persons during an event at prestigious JNU, the entire university was tagged anti national. The central govt was expected to respond with more maturity but it didn’t. Surely those who raised slogans should be identified and action should be taken as per the law, but as on date on even a charge sheet is filed against anyone in that case. Central govt only saw political mileage in this issue. Recently defense minister of India said that enemies of the nation are at JNU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What? Enemies of nation was 6 km from where defense minister of India is sitting and she cannot do anything about it? It was outrageous for a person sitting in such a responsible position to malign a university just for political mileage for her party. All propriety has been set aside, only political mileage matters.

This didn’t stop at JNU, nowadays anyone questioning the government is rottenly called anti national and advised to go to Pakistan. Prime minister of India, during an election rally in Gujarat (during 2017) alleged that a former PM, former VP and former Army chief were indulged in a conspiracy with Pakistan to make BJP loose Gujarat election. What an outrageous thing to be said by prime minister ! but he did it and he keeps uttering such things time and again and no one can counter him, guess why? Because prime minister never takes questions. He has never ever held a press conference (first Indian PM to do it) and the few interviews which he has given are to select friendly channels with no counter questions allowed and tricky questions were not to be asked.

Coming to “news” channels, a medium destroyed in last 4-5 years. Now certain news channels are amazingly and openly partisan. They keep attacking opposition parties on daily basis with one excuse or the other. They keep praising ruling party and the PM always and never even attempt to question or criticize it. If there is any news which reflects poorly on ruling regime then its given a twist or simply blacked out !!!! There are no words to describe status of TV media in india today. Even newspapers (specially) hindi newspapers are no better. Recently there was a “news” in a prominan Hindi newspaper that “experts are of the opinion that of Modi doesn’t become PM again in 2019, the rupee will slide below Rs 75 a dollar”. This is laughable, no expert talks like that, they give technical reasons. Obviously name of expert was not given in the news. Most of the media is now compromised beyond imagination.

One new phenomenon is being spread is that there are lots of anti-nationals in india. “Liberals” are being painted as anti nationals. Even people who didn’t knew meaning of “liberal” five years back are saying liberals are to be blamed for everything. Another grudge is against “intellectuals” the authors, artists, scientists, economists who question present govt or even try to fact check (mostly inaccurate) claims by BJP and its leaders are dubbed anti india and trolled and abused badly. A new term “Tukde Tukde Gang” has been coined for anyone who questions BJP or Modi. Questioning BJP or Government is being linked to questioning India itself ! BJP in last 20 years made “Secular” a bad word. But present BJP regime made “liberal” and “intellectual” also bad words (for their supporters) in mere 5 years. JNU is just a mascot, people are now made to believe there are many in india who hate india, who hate Hindus. This is simply pathetic. Many people influenced by social media propaganda, now believe that those who dont support Modi are anti nationals and anti India. A lot has changed in India. and lately there is attempts.

Present government has been in campaign mode 24 x 7 since last 5 tears. Worse part is, Even foreign policy of India, its economic policy and almost everything it does is focused on domestic messaging and influencing voters.  If an inidan minister plans a meeting with Pakistan counterpart at a world event, it is cancelled after outrage on twitter ! Even army operations such as “surgical strike” are openly politicized by the govt and PM himself. There is lot of criticism of Indian govt in foreign media , but the government doesn’t bother, only domestic messaging to voters matter, nothing else.

Another thing I wish to highlight is that of Kashmir. The situation in Kashmir has been  such that the Central govt has to play hard and soft ball depending upon the situation. Kashmir was relatively peaceful in previous decade before 2014.However things are on a boil in Kashmir since last 4-5 years. Kashmiris are often resentful towards India. Present government has unfortunately made Kashmir a part of its politics in rest of India. On whatsapp groups and social media, messages keep coming on how  the macho central govt is teaching Kashmiris a lesson. The tone of the messages is tasteless such as “I will bear Rs 500/litre price for petrol but Kashmiris need to be thrashed” Now the centre just can’t adopt middle path in Kashmir for fear of loosing votes of its core voters. It is a huge mistake to make the army action in Kashmir a part of politics in rest of India, but sadly it is happening today.

One part about which I am really concerned that even economic indicators such as GDP growth figures are politicized and manipulated. Indian economic statistics used to be credible, scientific and comparable with the best in the world, now the latest GDP figures released by the govt are said to be fudged as they don’t commensurate with other economy parameters such as export growth, corporate profits etc. Now some of the ideologically inclined economists are supporting govt data while most of the reputed and global economists openly doubt and question data.  Recently 109 reputed economists have expressed concern about integrity of Indian data. Such things never happened earlier.

Another thing which I want to highlight is staggering intellectual dishonesty of the present government. The economic data is manipulated. We  have seen how even PM has been economic with the truth during his address to people. Fake news factories are in full swing.Same is happening in TV debates where many of the participants openly and clearly lie and quote these fake news, which is never contested by the anchor.  Even official govt reports are influenced by propaganda , sometime back an official home ministry report published a European international border with floodlights implying it to be India-Pak border. Inconvenient reports and data are manipulated or suppressed or not published at all (eg employment record is suppressed by govt). During earlier times, statements made by prime minister or union minister or even party spokesmen used to carry some weight, they talked sense and supposed to be truthful, now only politics matter. All kinds of lies and propaganda are common from people sitting on high constitutional posts. Very very sad indeed.

As I write this blog, Prime minister of India is campaigning and in election rallies openly saying only Terrorists and Pakistan want me to lose thus dubbing all opposition as pro-pakistan and anti india. Such things were unthinkable 5 years back and coming from Prime minister’s mouth its just out of the world. The way society has polarized inlast 5 years is amazing and BJP is leaving no stone unturned to further add fuel to flames. Social fabric of india nurtured over decades is already broken and BJP is on mission to tatter it forever. BJP MPs, Ministers, CMs openly incite hatred.

Cow related lynchings and hate crime has risen exponentially in last 5 years and saddest part is that many of the BJP ministers and MPs openly defend the accused. Infamously a BJP union minister welcomed and garlanded lynching accused in Bihar. Whatever thought to be unthinkable, is now happening and being made normalized. Most troubling part is that such bigotry is being normalized with the help of a large chunk of conventional media. Yogi Adityanath ws made CM of UP in an outrageous move. His only achievement was that he was considered muslim baiter and hate monger. So many people now feel open and free to openly utter brazen communal hatred, many people were communal earlier also but now nobody feels that there is anything wrong in openly expressing their hatred. A BJP spokesperson recently threatened a muslim participant on live TV debate” just shut up or else I will change name of your masjid on name of lord Vishnu” Anchors rarely object to things like these. Minority baiting is in fashion now. Recently Govt of India  has proposed a law to give Indian citizenship to migrants from neighbour countries based on their religion. Basic ethos of our country is being compromised.

The “Scientific Temper” in India is a victim of what is going on these days. Lots of politicians from ruling party including union ministers keep saying stupid things like “Cow exhales oxygen” or “Darvin was wrong as nobody in ancient india saw creatures evolving”Indian Science Congress , a prestigious gathering of top scientific minds I nindia has been the worst victims. Since 4-5 years now,  amid gathering of genuine scientists many “invitees” make laughable claims such that ancient Indians had developed aeroplanes, nuclear weapons and used to do inter-planetary travel ! Many scientists have termed the Indian science congress as a circus now !

Today Political polarization in India has reached extreme. Before 2013 also, people spoke about politics but only occasionally. I myself rarely discussed politics with friends and with family. Now politics is everywhere. Everyone is polarized. Family whatsapp groups are full of political propaganda and messages. on whatsapp groups (more so on non family groups) intense political debates/arguments are common.

Political parties are daily generating and spreading propaganda to their target base and this keeps polarizing people further and further.I, personally have had political debates with close friends in last 4-5 years , with whom I never ever had any political discussion earlier. And with those friends who have opposing views, there is some unsaid uneasiness. Which is not good. Even in families there are political debate, between siblings, between mother-daughter and between all relatives. How this divisive politics has reached homes and families. Political polarization now is at extreme, it was never the case earlier. Everyone is either pro-modi or anti-modi, and both sides have extreme views. There is rarely any middle ground. Even professionals, economists etc moderate their views based on their political standing. God forbid if judiciary or defence establishment is polarized in future !!

It is not that no one is noticing such things, A large number of artists, writers, scientists, economists, film makers etc have expressed the concern over the direction India is taking. But the brazenness of the govt is unbelievable. With the help of pliant media and social media trolls, all such people are abused and declared anti india. All opposition leaders are painted as anti india. As if India was ruled by anti-India elements before 2014 !

This 2019 election, therefore, is not just any other general election, it is an election which will decide whether our India will remain India or not. I request our fellow countrymen to go vote and vote after thoroughly understanding what is happening in the country.

 

India’s capital (New Delhi) and India’s Media

I am back to the blog after long. Interestingly my last post was on eve of general elections in 2009 and this post is on the eve of next general elections of 2014. So 5 long years passed !!

Not that I deliberately chose this time, but I felt compelled to express my self about certain things I keep on hearing in the media.Indian media (and for that matter people) is known to be stereo typing, they create loud noise,hue & cry, build an image about people, things, places etc and continue to harness it , blatantly & shamelessly.

One of such examples is about city of Delhi. Media keeps on tagging Delhi as “Most unsafe” , “Most corrupt” and what not in their news, never highlighting good things about the city. And most of the time being blatant & wrongly putting facts giving bizarre and silly arguments (as listed below the first item).

Few examples below

1)    I was aghast by this and this prompted me to write this post.

After AAP’s win in Delhi assembly elections in December-2013, A journalist (Kumar ketkar if I remember name correctly on CNN-IBN) said on TV, “ parties like Aam admi party can win in Delhi but cannot be successful is Mumbai as Mumbai is a city of practical & mature people and such fairytale to remove corruption and clean politics by a new party will not be taken well by mature mumbaikars.

My question to Mr ketkar “ Does maturity lie in not supporting promises to clean politics and rather lies in supporting social hatred and violence against own countrymen?. No points for guessing, the biggest trump card to win “Mature “ Mumbai voters is to spread social hatred, indulge in street violence and goondagardi which has been the biggest political issue there.

Here I don’t intend to undermine Mumbai or its residents but intent is to rather show mirror to the particular journalist.

Not only Mr ketkar, I heard similar comments elsewhere also denying any credit to Delhites of choosing an alternate politics, rather branding them as non mature for not giving majority to traditional cong & bjp. Thank god Delhiets are not “mature” enough.

My point is here not to demean Mumbaikars. But I want to ask why Delhietes are not being given credit for opting an alternate brand of politics (Which may or may not prove to be successful), and rather they are being dubbed as “immature”. Hence a positive is turned into negative. 

2) Now An example how Delhi is denied credit it deserves.Delhi has been the rebellion capital of india where youth power of India is on full display. Youth of Delhi is well aware, mature and comes out of their comfort zone to demand justice for others and protest against the system unlike other “mature” cities. But Delhi is never given credit for such passionately display of its people against the social evils.

Be it Anna movement, India against corruption, Youth for equality movement against blatant reservations, whether Nirbhaya case or Jessica case. Youth of Delhi has always come and shown its power. On the contrary Anna movement was flopped in other cities when once he did his Anshan outside Delhi.

And again Delhi is never given credit and was rather dubbed as “angry” city  by Media (CNN IBN in this case). Hence yet again this positive  of Delhi is turned into negative.And other cities are never criticized for being apathetic to various social issues.

3) Delhi being showcased as “most unsafe” city of India. And when one looks for the basis, The basis are always “opinion polls” and not the hard data. And “opinions” are always driven by what media shows day in and day out.

“An autowallah brushes against the feet of a woman while taking out some material from under the back seat of auto becomes a national headline like ”Woman molested in Delhi”, as the front page news. But the rape & murders happening in other parts of india don’t even find a mention forget about being in headline. As per the statistics there is a rape in India every half an hour hence about 50 rapes take place in this country daily, but none of that finds even mention and autowallah-brushes-hands becomes the National Headline News.

Agreed, crime numbers in Delhi is higher than some other cities but on per capita basis its lower than most other cities. Only thing is that media shows Delhi news day in and day out and this may form opinions in people and these opinions very much created by media are the basis of the opinion polls which further create opinions. And his cycle goes on.

Above three points are just few examples. i am sick of such biased and stereotypical attitude of media towards Delhi. One reason may be that 90% of national media is based in Delhi. And that good news is no news, they have to show bad news only.

Another factor is also that there is no Local pride in Delhi unlike cities of Mumbai, Kokata, Chennai etc, which of course is not a bad thing, but it simply doesn’t exist in Delhi. There are no “ketkars” from Delhi who will put shameless and laughable opinions just to support his city and demean others. Also In Delhi there are no “locals” or “outsiders”. This is another outstanding feature of this city which media fail to recognize due to their biased attitude.

Objective of this post is not to demean other Indian cities but to help Delhi get its due respect as one of the greatest cities in the world which has historically been capital of this country under many dynasties, which constantly faced barbaric attacks , destroyed and rebuilt and stood from the Ashes and it today stands tall as the capital of the largest democracy in the world.

And India’s Next PM is……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General Elections are approaching in India, and I am very curious about it. Have always been. I started taking interest in politics since I was about 15, and when Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the PM for the first time in 1996. My family has been a supporter of BJP (Supporter in the sense that they wanted to see a change after so long of congress rule) . I remember my father asked the hawker specially to drop all the newspapers at our home when Mr Vajpayee took oath. And then Govt fell after 13 days, and I was disappointed, that was the very moment in my life when I started taking interest in politics and started following it closely being a BJP supporter.

  Of late I’m not that ardent follower of politics, the reason probably is that I don’t have faith in any of the political parties.But still, lok sabha elections and the counting of votes will surely be my biggest attraction on the print and electronic media in the coming days.

The biggest question is that who will be our next PM this time, let’s take a look at the contenders

1) Dr Manmohan Singh: (Current Prime Minister of India)

He is my favourite to be the next PM and lead us again. He is an educated, experienced and most importantly honest person. I admired him when he put his government at stake for Indo US Nuclear deal, when as a finance minister he started the process of economic reforms. He is a decent, soft-spoken and nice being and  deserve the top job more than anyone else. But I would like him to come out of the shadow of Sonia Gandhi

2) L K Advani: (Current leader of opposition and former Union Home minister) 

He is my second choice for the top job for having vast political experience, having been MP,home minister and deputy prime minister of India.He is well educated and i believe he  has the knack to lead the country from the front. He has a reputation of being a tough and dynamic administrator. And of late he has been trying to get rid of his image as a communal leader, which i would like him to do.

Above two are the prime ministerial candidates of the two leading national parties/coalitions and have all chance to grab the top job.Following are some other contenders whose names are doing rounds in the media.

3) Mayawati: (Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh state of India)

I don’t think she has any real chance to become PM and more importantly she doesn’t deserve to be PM. Her wrong points are her opportunism, her aggression, corruption charges, lack of experience in central politics and lack of decency and sophistication among many more. Yes, she has some strong points as well like she is a tough administrator, she has risen to this level on her own and the fact that she can not be driven by others. If she becomes PM, she will certainly not be a “weak” PM.

 4) Sharad Pawar: (Current Union agriculture Minister)

His name too is coming up and I don’t understand why. There is nothing wrong with him as a contender, he is experienced politician, has been a good MP and minister, has got good administratrive experience too being central minister. But if it comes to the number game, he doesn’t stand any chance

 5) Narendra Modi: (Current Chief Minister of Gujarat State of India)

 If I am right, his name was thrown by some industrialists as an option for Prime ministership. Certainly his industry friendly approach has done good for Gujarat state of India. On personal level he can surely be an effective PM, having enough administrative/political experience, being a strong and capable chief minister and being development oriented.
But, BJP has to win 271 seats for him to become prime minister,  that’s because of his image as an anti Muslim politician and the role of his government during notorious Gujarat riots.

Out of the above, My personal choice is  Dr Manmohan Singh, but something in me wants to see a change, so I wont be disappointed if Mr Advani take the charge of our country this time.

There is every possibility that none of them gets the chance and something unexpected happens, that’s why the outcome of these elections is going to be very interesting.

Let us see what happens, the countdown has already begun…

Why should India fiddle with Sri Lankan issue?

 

Recently this has been a big issue, and I saw no post on the subject in the blogs I visit, so decided to write something about it. It’s a common knowledge that Sri Lankan government is on the way of eliminating the LTTE, a notorious terrorist organization of Sri Lanka who have been engaged in conducting heinous crimes against the humanity including assassination of  former prime minister of India,  Rajeev Gandhi and several top Sri Lankan politicians.

 

The aim of LTTE is to create a separate Tamil country in the northern and eastern parts of the island nation.LTTE are notorious for suicide bombings and here they outnumber even the Islamic terror groups. They have trained huge number of children to become suicide bombers who always carry cyanide capsules with them.Nowadays the government of Sri Lanka is running a massive campaign to eliminate LTTE and reportedly many civil Tamilians are too being victims of the same. This is an abhorable act by the government in Sri Lanka if some civilians too are suffering as a result of their drive against the militant outfit.

 

 Obviously India and other democratic countries in the world should condemn this act and request the government of Sri Lanka to protect the rights of the civilian people. I believe the reaction of India in this particular case should be same as it’s reaction in the case of Israel’s drive in Gaza which is again inhuman.But i dont think India can go out of the way and and force the Sri Lankan government to act in any particular manner.  

 

But what’s happening here in India is something different. The government of Tamilnadu state in India is forcing the Government of India to send very senior envoys to Sri Lanka and force them to stop their action against LTTE. Recently there have been lots of disruptions and Bandhs in Tamilnadu and even the colleges were to be closed. In Tamilnadu, there have been more bandhs for Srilankan Tamils than Indian Tamils, forget about other Indians:)  Even the political parties of tamilnadu are known to have links with LTTE.

 

This is what I find not appropriate, why India should go out of the way in the internal matter of Sri Lanka.I am all for the rights of civilians in Sri Lanka and for that matter any other country on the planet but have my reservations about Indian government interfering everywhere in the world and direct the respective governments to act. Can India go to Israel and make them stop their inhuman acts in Philistine, I don’t think so.World’s most influential country USA could do something but certainly not India.   

 

I must say I am surprised by this move by the government of Tamilnadu. Apparently they are doing so because LTTE and Sri Lankan Tamils also speak Tamil and are of same ethnic origin as them. But, so what? Even in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Pakistan one can find people of same ethnic origin as Indians, so can India take the responsibility to protect their rights rather than the governments of the respective countries. It is the responsibility of the government of a country to protect the rights of its citizens and not that of a foreign country.

 

The idea of so called same race and ethnic origin is costing our country dearly nowadays. In Indian state of maharashtra, people belonging to other parts of the country have been killed by the local political parties in hope to get votes. In Karnataka state of India, people of Maharashtra are being treated badly and in return buses entering from Karnata were burnt in maharashtra.Also there were incidents of people of Karnataka and Tamilnadu beating each other. Regionalism, along with terrorism has become a roadblock in the progress of our country. And in rest of India (Northern India, Gujarat, West Bengal, Orissa, AP, etc) people fight on the names of caste and religion, if not region.

  

I am sorry to say; still we humans are deeply divided and there is no point in growing up and being educated if we are going to hate other people who we think are not like “us”.

 

PS- Recently Sri Lankan Army released photographs of Indian tamil leader Vaiko with LTTE chief Phabhakaran in the LTTE uniform. Later Vaiko said that he is proud on the photos and his LTTE links. Vaiko is a prominant Tamil politician and is known to have links with LTTE.

 

Our Obsession with full digits and how much do we suffer from it

 

I don’t know whether anyone has thought about it or not but at least I have not read or heard anyone talking about it; this thought has always been doing rounds inside me, and that is, our obsession with full digits. All of us have a tendency to jump to the nearest full digits at the slightest opportunity. But I don’t think anyone has ever estimated the loss do we humans suffer to due to our obsession with full digits.

 

Following are some examples which come to my mind instantly

 

Suppose a deal is going to be settled logically at 99.5 lakh, then there is all probability that they will settle it in100 lakhs. Now why on earth should one party bear a loss of 50 thousand?

  

An investment Guru is giving 10 best stocks to invest in.

Suppose there are only 9 stocks fulfilling the criteria of the investment Guru, but to make it 10, he might have included one stock not worth inclusion. Or may be he might have a total 12 stocks fulfilling his criteria, but he gave us only 10, in that case too, he has deprived us of some information due to obsession with full digits.

  

My teacher wanted to know how muchtime i would require to solve a problem

I thought 5 mins would be too less and 10 mins would be too much, but still I ended up saying either 5 or 10 mins, though what I wanted to say was “7 mins”. I was deprived of giving correct assessment of time required by me.

 

One has to start a new project conceived on Friday afternoon, and even with six working days in a week (ie Saturday working), it’s decided to start the job from the coming Monday. Who is now responsible for this time loss?

  

The reasons for this obsession is psychological for sure, and I don’t want to go into further details of it. Here I have raised a question, the question is not that why are we obsessed with full digits, but, why do we suffer losses for this and why no one has not yet estimated the extent of it.

 

 

Blog on break

Dear All

I’m on an official tour since last 20 odd days, very busy out here, hence not able to blog. Am extremely sorry for not being able to leave a message before going. Shall be very busy till almost mid Jan, will not be able to write here or read other blogs.

Some bad news of dirty terror attacks in our beloved Mumbai came in between, which has hurt all of us. Donno what’s the solution, nothing canbe done without political will. Hope new central Govt to be elected next year will bring some results.

Dear Mumbaikars, show to the terrorists that they can not stop Mumbai/India with their monstrous acts.We are all with you.  

 

Regards and Happy new year in advance

Yours

vivek

Evolution of Humans: Developed world and Developing world

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently a British genetics expert, Steve Jones stated that humans in developed world have stopped evolving, because people there in western countries need not struggle for there survival and the famous theory of Darvin “survival for the fittest” doesn’t come into picture. And he didn’t miss saying that the evolution hasn’t stopped in the developing world, because people there have to struggle for survival.

 

I am no expert in the evolution theory of genetics, nor have I studied biology beyond matriculation, nor I want to challenge the British expert because I am not qualified enough, but I cant suppress something in me which tend to disagree.

 

This seems to be a loose statement and I differ and would like to raise some points

 

He says that humans in developing countries stopped evolving because they need to struggle for survival. Well, I feel this is a very sweeping statement, as not all people in developing countries struggle to survive, many of the people live as lavish life as people in developed countries. So does that mean that in developing countries too some people have stopped evolving? Evolution takes a vast time frame, even for a minor change thousands of years pass. And I don’t think it takes anything more than a century for backward countries to develop, so as per the theory of Mr Steve, nowadays peole of developing countries are subject to evolution and after hundred years they will again stop evolving? It seems Mr Steve has assumed that all backward countries will remain backward in next thousand years.

Or can anyone say it for sure that all people in developed countries need not struggle for survival.

 

Even if I view it from another point of view, and forget about developed and backward countries as mentioned by Mr Steve, can it be assumed that anyone irrespective of country he lives in, if lives in extreme poverty, then his further generations would also live in extreme poverty so that evolution could take place?

I think evolution theory is not same for humans and animals, as animals can not change their life at their will, they will live in jungle, struggle for survival and in the process, will evolve. But in case of humans, as they have got the ability of change their life due to highly developed mind, their process of evolution should be different. Suppose someone lives in extreme poverty and need to struggle for survival, so is his next generation, so next to next generation, but it’s not guaranteed that his 100 generations will live for sure in extreme conditions for evolution to come into picture. In fact it’s very likey that his next generations live in much better conditions.  

 

One more fault (at least I think so) in Mr Steve’s theory is that he has assumed that if conditions so come, people in developed world will not evolve, and also there wont be any crisis which would call for further evolution of humans.

 

Evolution takes place in a very vast time frame, but nature has made it sure that even in a very short time frame further generations of living beings may be born with somewhat better profile, by making two sexes in almost all of living beings.

All the species happen to have a tendency to extend their population and two sexes can help the newborn inheriting better of two. This is a natural refinement process of the living beings, but unfortunately we humans waste it because in our civilization marriage is supposed to happen only between equals.

 

Gods of Hindus and the Song of “Lagaan”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

There is a song in Hindi film “Lagaan”, rendering worship to the God by a group of poor villagers

 

The song goes like that

 

“O Palanhare, Nirgun aur Nyare, tumhre bin hamra koi nahin”

 

The above song sounds nice as a prayer by villagers to the God to save them in the cricket match against the English, for which their future was at stake.

Everything in this song is fine but the word “Nirgun”.

 

The Hindi/Sanskrit word “Nirgun” means one who has not any particular appearance or particular identity. The words “Nirgun” and “Nirakar” in Hindi are used mainly to define the Gods in Islam or Christianity, where God is assumed in not any particular shape or appearance. In these religions “Murti Puja” (worshipping the idols of God) is not done, they don’t believe in multiple Gods and believe only in one almighty God without assuming any appearance.

 

But in Hinduism God is not “Nirgun”. We have assumed Gods and their apperance, we make idols of Gods put it in front and worship. 

 

Hinduism is perhaps only religion in the world, which has no founder, which was never founded, and practice of Hinduism is mainly in India and Nepal. It developed and flourished by itself. The practices of the religion like festivals or rituals are not firm and vary with the regions in India. But,the “Murti Puja”  remains common everywhere, in any part of India, Nepal or world. I firmly believe that “Murti Puja” is the most distinguishing feature of Hinduism. Our Gods are “Sagun” and not “Nirgun”.

 

 I have high regards for lyricist and writer Javed Akhtar, one of the finest writers in Bollywood, but am slightly surprised by this blunder mistake in one of his songs. Also interestingly I have never heard anyone objecting to this. I object to this because this is misrepresentation of the very concept of Hinduism.

 

 

 

Are Birds close to Reptiles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Few days back I watched a show on discovery channel which tried to establish a link between dinosaurs and birds, it said that possibly birds evolved from dinosaurs. It showcased many reasons for the same. Mainly the similarity between the skeletons of the birds and dinosaurs was too convincing, such similarity to the dinosaurs is not scene in any other living creature on earth.Also dinosaurs are believed to have respiratory systems similar to modern birds.

  

 As the dinosaurs are said to be reptiles ( As they had no fur, laid eggs, their skin had scales, and many of their species were cold blodded )  after watching that show, I started wondering whether birds are close to reptiles, though birds are not technically reptiles as they are warm blooded as opposed to reptiles which are cold blooded. But there are many similarities, which are following

• Birds and reptiles both lay eggs
• Birds and reptiles show some skeletal similarities
• Birds have feathers, which are said to be modified scales
• Birds feet have scales 

Even whether dinosaurs were reptiles, is too debatable, as it’s still not sure whether they were warm blooded or cold blooded. Till the mid 20^th century it was believed that dinosaurs were cold blooded, slow moving creatures, but later research has found that they were very active animals and could have been warm blooded. This issue is still debatable.  Also one dissimilarity between dinosaurs and reptiles is that the legs of dinosaurs were directly below their hips, like in mammals and unlike in lizards.

 

So, the conclusion of the above is that there are similarities between both birds and reptiles and dinosaurs and reptiles, so scientists established a theory that both birds and reptiles had a common ancestor in dinosaurs. But there are many who even believe that birds are not evolved from dinosaurs but birds are dinosaurs.

 

Many may think that why I’m discussing such a topic, or how does it matter if birds are close to reptiles. But it matters to me because I used to like birds and used to not like reptiles. In fact I hate reptiles, I become restless if I spot a lizard on the walls and cant live in such a place. So, now after watching that show on discovery and analyzing similarities between birds and reptiles, I didn’t really enjoy this fact.