I see the news of “Gujjar-Raje govt talks successful” flashing across all national news channels this morning and it makes me think whether events like this is a positive contribution towards India, as one of the most successful democracies. When the whole world is watching us with curiosity, are we not developing some cracks inside which has the potential to tear any nation apart, no matter how potent you are economically. We lost almost 40 lives since fresh imbroglio started this year, Rajasthan as one of the talked about places among tourists coming to India has lost its flavor. These are just a couple of immediate corollaries due to the latest tussle between Gujjars and Rajasthan on the demand by Gujjar community that they should be given Scheduled Tribe status.
If we are willing to have a closer look, this event is the mutation of one of the biggest weak link Indian democracy has – caste or community based reservation system which is still advertized by all political parties as the most ideal tool to make India a country of equal opportunities. Supreme court delivered its judgment in April 2008 on Central Educational Institutions (Reservations in Admissions) Act 2006 that government would be able to reserve 27 per cent of seats for candidates from 'Other Backward Classes' in IITs and IIMs (and other central educational institutions) and It was celebrated by Government as a victory to social justice and well augmented by the opposition as well. The same central government responded to Rajasthan government that It should handle the uncontrollable situation in Rajasthan itself because It is the by-product of false promises made by them when the state cited central government’s help amidst law and order situation getting berserk in Rajasthan in May and June. I agree that the ruling party leaders had provided hope and fire both to the Gujjar’s aspiration to go up in reservation hierarchy in last assembly election. But, almost all political parties have used this best card available in Indian politics at their will. A Community, Cast or region which is still deprived of basic necessities in this country jumps on this effortless idea of relying on quota to make their life better.
But, they are not the one to blame. After all, which kid would say no to its favorite chocolate If you give him the choice? Relying exclusively on quotas or reservations, as they are called, as a substitute for real policies to address inequality is a sheer myth which must be understood and replaced in the best interest of democracy of India. It may sound unusual to a lot of people as Reservation as a tool for social equality is considered as one the strongest pillars of Indian democracy. But, everything must evolve over time. Let us have a closer look at this Rajasthan event itself – what exactly triggered this uncompromising demand of getting ST status in reservation hierarchy by Gujjar community? It starts off with a very basic reason of lack of education opportunities which results into fewer jobs and in turn scarce of basic necessities of life. That further leads to insecurity among a caste or community, moreover I personally think in a region, and that insecurity is mischievously exploited by political leaders and well supported by our constitution that reservation is there to take care of all people in need. Political leaders keep on feeding their hope that if they are given the chance, they will pull them into that shell which will make their life better without much of effort. But, once they are elected, either they disregard their promise or even if they want to execute their promise, they finally come to meet the reality that the comfort shell of reservation is getting congested and there is not much space left. The cast, community or region which is bluffed time and again by this trick eventually get frustrated and feel cheated. They are forced to go the most effective way, but unfortunately the most explosive as well, in democracy – they come on street with a leader like Bainsla in front and the whole saga which had started with the aspiration of betterment of life ends with many innocent lives being inspired to finish their life.
The community and its leader knows it very well that government has to buckle down finally because which state and administration can fight its own people when they are ready to sacrifice their lives to uplift the social and economical status of others.
The turmoil Rajasthan has gone through in last one month happens when people who have been longing to become part of this easy ride don’t see it coming their way and run out of patience.
What is so imperative to understand here is that the effect is cascading and cyclic; the gujjars in Rajasthan want to move up the ladder in reservation hierarchy because the recent addition in OBC category like Jats are sharing there pie. Now once gujjars are given the status of ST, a Meena backslash is unavoidable because they would have to share their ST quota with Gujjars and since there would be a vacancy in OBC category, some other caste would push to be in that category.
Already people is pushing for reservation in private sectors and a lot of political leaders are feeding them once again, Do we even anticipate that the multinationals which is operating from a number of different places in India will never compromise on best talent? That might lead to make them shift their base to some other competitive countries in asia because the talent available in this country is the major attraction for them to be here, not infrastructure or any thing else.
I can’t imagine IBM taking interview of candidates and at the end of day announcing two different results – one for general quota and other for reserved quota.
After all what is stopping the parliament of this great democratic country from making a few core changes – Yes, We need the reservation but provide the reservation to poor irrespective of what caste, community or region he belongs to, invest in education for all of India’s one billion people. I will say nobody is stopping but a real political will is needed to do these radical changes.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
The Thackerays
Coming back to home on my bike late last night, my attention is caught by a big shiv sena banner with the picture of Uddhav Thackrey and It says “Pradarshan Navhe, Pragatiche Darshan” – Don’t Demonstrate, Let us progress.
Before that I could have completed my thoughts on this banner, There comes the second banner with another thackrey and this one reads “Let us gather for a demonstration ”.
Wow! I say. The dizziness which often seizes me, while driving back home late in the night, is now completely gone away from me. What makes these banners really intriguing to me is that one comes from the son of Bala Saheb who has been made legal heir of Thackeray legacy by Bala saheb himself but doesn’t sound like typical Thackeray at all. The other comes from who left Thackerays because he was not getting his due there and was in the quest of his own identity but sounds precisely the way Bala Saheb would have sounded in his heydays.
This is not the first incident which brought me to this conclusion. There are others indeed. In his last rally, Raj giving open challenge to Lalu Prasad yadav to do “chhat Puja” in mumbai, quoting selective Ambedkar’s writings from “Linguistic state and state founded on the basis of minorities” that “Ambedkar had warned against the high headedness of North Indians” and once again battering his favorites “The Bachhans”.
On the other side, Uddhav while addressing a public meeting on Sunday at Goregaon talks about promoting the entrepreneurial skills of maharashtrian youths by selling vada pavs and contemplates to tie up with famous vada pav retail chain “Jumbo King” of Maharashtra to produce more employment for locals.
These incidents give me the impression that one who has been handed over Bala Saheb’s legacy knows the demand of time and working towards what is needed to woo the people today while the other is still carrying that old age theory of Divide by religion, caste or region and rule.
I think this all started when Raj’s party MNS performed miserably in 2007 Bombay municipal corporation while Uddhav very intelligently marched his resources to get a considerable win for Shiv Sena BJP alliance. Raj got frustrated and started looking out for anything which will enable him to become true heir of Bala Saheb what he dreamt of when he left Shiv Sena.
So, what he chose, the easiest of the lot – spit the venom against North Indians in mumbai. So, he basically tried to emulate his idol to become the true leader of “Marathi Maanush”.
I get this feeling sometimes that he is in so much hurry that he doesn’t understand or may be he doesn’t want to understand that what he is doing will not do any good to his politics instead this will end up giving one more crack to this country’s integrity.
Gone are the days when people were fooled by politicians with their emotional and disintegrable speeches. To support this, when I tried to discover how my maraathi friends react to the way Raj is behaving. I won’t like to alter their responses being a non-marathi. They say and they say it very categorically that yes they are concerned by the influx of people in mumbai from other states but they don’t agree with Raj’s theory of resolving it. They would like to go for better way outs – making more job opportunities for local people in their own state or they would like to see centre taking some initiatives so that people earn their livelihood in their own state. After all, who wants to be away from their own places and called an alien and migrant in some other state.
Now, who is this fistful of people whom Raj is leading. They are following every slogan of him, every move of him and giving him all the fuel required on his self-destructive journey. This reminds me of Lalu ruling Bihar for almost twenty-five years. It was cast based gushy politics and people were simply fooled by this smart guy. Though pretty late, Bihar has learnt its lesson. Maharashtra being one of the most progressive and industrious state of modern india, I would expect Maharashtrian to react much more sharply and strongly to anything which is done with the sheer intention to grab the power or to become a bigger leader in size.
As always, It doesn’t matter how leaders are behaving, It is always the people who decide in a democratic country.
So, Back to Thackrayes, one seem to be playing cool and knows completely what “Maraathi Maanush” wants today. He is in balance between what his mentor and father expects from him and what the people of Maharashtra expects from him.
The other seem to be frustrated and just playing with the easiest idea available which is only going to weaken our country and If he thinks that this approach is going to make him a power-house leader, This country has changed drastically, the world is looking towards us in envy. So, The people of this country is making right decision more often than not and I belief they are not going to follow a leader who still believes in “Divide and rule”.
Before that I could have completed my thoughts on this banner, There comes the second banner with another thackrey and this one reads “Let us gather for a demonstration ”.
Wow! I say. The dizziness which often seizes me, while driving back home late in the night, is now completely gone away from me. What makes these banners really intriguing to me is that one comes from the son of Bala Saheb who has been made legal heir of Thackeray legacy by Bala saheb himself but doesn’t sound like typical Thackeray at all. The other comes from who left Thackerays because he was not getting his due there and was in the quest of his own identity but sounds precisely the way Bala Saheb would have sounded in his heydays.
This is not the first incident which brought me to this conclusion. There are others indeed. In his last rally, Raj giving open challenge to Lalu Prasad yadav to do “chhat Puja” in mumbai, quoting selective Ambedkar’s writings from “Linguistic state and state founded on the basis of minorities” that “Ambedkar had warned against the high headedness of North Indians” and once again battering his favorites “The Bachhans”.
On the other side, Uddhav while addressing a public meeting on Sunday at Goregaon talks about promoting the entrepreneurial skills of maharashtrian youths by selling vada pavs and contemplates to tie up with famous vada pav retail chain “Jumbo King” of Maharashtra to produce more employment for locals.
These incidents give me the impression that one who has been handed over Bala Saheb’s legacy knows the demand of time and working towards what is needed to woo the people today while the other is still carrying that old age theory of Divide by religion, caste or region and rule.
I think this all started when Raj’s party MNS performed miserably in 2007 Bombay municipal corporation while Uddhav very intelligently marched his resources to get a considerable win for Shiv Sena BJP alliance. Raj got frustrated and started looking out for anything which will enable him to become true heir of Bala Saheb what he dreamt of when he left Shiv Sena.
So, what he chose, the easiest of the lot – spit the venom against North Indians in mumbai. So, he basically tried to emulate his idol to become the true leader of “Marathi Maanush”.
I get this feeling sometimes that he is in so much hurry that he doesn’t understand or may be he doesn’t want to understand that what he is doing will not do any good to his politics instead this will end up giving one more crack to this country’s integrity.
Gone are the days when people were fooled by politicians with their emotional and disintegrable speeches. To support this, when I tried to discover how my maraathi friends react to the way Raj is behaving. I won’t like to alter their responses being a non-marathi. They say and they say it very categorically that yes they are concerned by the influx of people in mumbai from other states but they don’t agree with Raj’s theory of resolving it. They would like to go for better way outs – making more job opportunities for local people in their own state or they would like to see centre taking some initiatives so that people earn their livelihood in their own state. After all, who wants to be away from their own places and called an alien and migrant in some other state.
Now, who is this fistful of people whom Raj is leading. They are following every slogan of him, every move of him and giving him all the fuel required on his self-destructive journey. This reminds me of Lalu ruling Bihar for almost twenty-five years. It was cast based gushy politics and people were simply fooled by this smart guy. Though pretty late, Bihar has learnt its lesson. Maharashtra being one of the most progressive and industrious state of modern india, I would expect Maharashtrian to react much more sharply and strongly to anything which is done with the sheer intention to grab the power or to become a bigger leader in size.
As always, It doesn’t matter how leaders are behaving, It is always the people who decide in a democratic country.
So, Back to Thackrayes, one seem to be playing cool and knows completely what “Maraathi Maanush” wants today. He is in balance between what his mentor and father expects from him and what the people of Maharashtra expects from him.
The other seem to be frustrated and just playing with the easiest idea available which is only going to weaken our country and If he thinks that this approach is going to make him a power-house leader, This country has changed drastically, the world is looking towards us in envy. So, The people of this country is making right decision more often than not and I belief they are not going to follow a leader who still believes in “Divide and rule”.
Did we learn a lesson? – Ney
9/11 happened in the US in 2001. We are yet to hear any major terrorist attack after that in the US. There happened 7/7 underground blasts in London in 2001. We didn’t hear any major terrorist attack after that in the UK. Even If attempted, they were made to fall short emphatically.
7/11 train blasts in Mumbai in 2006, we lost almost 225 lives, 9/8 in 2006 in Malegaon town of Maharashtra, lives we lost almost 40 lives, 2/19 Samjhauta express bombings in 2007,we lost 70 this time, and now the terrifying Tuesday in Jaipur which snatched 80 innocent lives and we are still counting. I have not taken into account here what happened in dozens of other barbaric acts which has rocked this nation so many times in last six-seven years including Parliament, Varanasi and Hyderabad. Forget about Kashmir because as a nation, it seems that we have taken now it for guaranteed that It is bound to be hit by terrorism.
We are reacting once again in the most raucous way; “ Whichever organization and the country has hands in the blasts is trying to destabilize India because of its growth and development,” said Jaiswal, Minister of State for Home Affairs. “Didn’t you know this before, Sir?”, that is my question.
If you knew it, Please tell us one single stringent measure taken by you to bring these attacks to an end.
We haven’t not been able to bring a single case of all of these attacks to a logical end till date, sketches are released, the culprit would be identified as HUJI from Bangladesh or Lashkar-e-Taiba, some very aggressive press conferences would be on disposal on our television sets by government, opposition and police alike, some individuals would be arrested as the suspects. After six-eight months, We will come to know in one of least important news section that trials have started for these suspects. By the time that trial comes to an end, Here comes the breaking news of another big blast and all the focus is shifted to the new bomb blast. You will never come to know about the exact individual or organization who was the perpetrator behind the last attack and whether they were given the punishment they ought to have by Indian Jurisdiction or not.
Until we react in the strongest possible way to such brutal acts, we will always be the victim and those evils will keep on making mockery of us. I am not a supporter of POTA but that was one of the weapons with us to give these barbarians their due in a faster way and that is one of the examples of strong reaction. Mohammad Afzal is still waiting in some prison of india, whether he is accused or not, I am not sure because even the government is not sure about that even after seven years of attack on Indian parliament.
I have cited these examples to show that people in the power react to these incidents in the most animated way but when it comes to react by strong deeds, I am still waiting for a single national level stringent measure to be taken by this government.
So, we are not reactive. Are we pro-active, The answer is big NO.
The best example to talk about is our own city Mumbai. Other day, I was in Hypercity to do my weekly shopping, There is a lady who does all the security checks at the entrance. She tells me to open the bag. I open one of the zips of the bag; she looks at it from outside and tells me to go ahead. There were two others parts of the bag which were not even unzipped by her.
Lets take example of security measures taken on on one of the most soft targets, the railway stations. You go to any metro station in London, NY or Chicago, They do random baggage checks. In our city, it used to happen for a couple of months after bomb blast in 2006. We don’t have it any more because it seems that the terrorists have sent a letter to mumbai police that they won’t attack mumbai any more. Their targets have changed because Mumbai is alert now.
Forget about the system and people in power, Are we as a society pro-active. I will say no. When I enter my office, The security guard ask us to show the security badge, If you see the reaction of majority of employees, it is like the poor chap is asking him for some favor as some beggars on traffic signals. You won’t believe some of them even escape the check because either they are big guys or they are smart drivers.
These are the incidents which reflects that either politicians, administrators or we the common people of India as a society is still not pro-active against this threat which is hell-bent on taking the lives of hundreds of innocent individuals every six month. And, off course, the frequency is all bound to go up because they know neither we react with all our capacity and nor we are proactive.
Though I know that there won’t be any reaction to this appeal, but still, nothing wrong in trying, the government of India must put in place the most redundant security policy to protect our internal security. The innocent people are at the disposable of these barbarians in all parts of country – Kashmir, Mumbai, Rajasthan, Bihar, U.P, Hyderabad, New Delhi, in the temples and on the trains. Can we now please react as a stronger nation and stronger society?
7/11 train blasts in Mumbai in 2006, we lost almost 225 lives, 9/8 in 2006 in Malegaon town of Maharashtra, lives we lost almost 40 lives, 2/19 Samjhauta express bombings in 2007,we lost 70 this time, and now the terrifying Tuesday in Jaipur which snatched 80 innocent lives and we are still counting. I have not taken into account here what happened in dozens of other barbaric acts which has rocked this nation so many times in last six-seven years including Parliament, Varanasi and Hyderabad. Forget about Kashmir because as a nation, it seems that we have taken now it for guaranteed that It is bound to be hit by terrorism.
We are reacting once again in the most raucous way; “ Whichever organization and the country has hands in the blasts is trying to destabilize India because of its growth and development,” said Jaiswal, Minister of State for Home Affairs. “Didn’t you know this before, Sir?”, that is my question.
If you knew it, Please tell us one single stringent measure taken by you to bring these attacks to an end.
We haven’t not been able to bring a single case of all of these attacks to a logical end till date, sketches are released, the culprit would be identified as HUJI from Bangladesh or Lashkar-e-Taiba, some very aggressive press conferences would be on disposal on our television sets by government, opposition and police alike, some individuals would be arrested as the suspects. After six-eight months, We will come to know in one of least important news section that trials have started for these suspects. By the time that trial comes to an end, Here comes the breaking news of another big blast and all the focus is shifted to the new bomb blast. You will never come to know about the exact individual or organization who was the perpetrator behind the last attack and whether they were given the punishment they ought to have by Indian Jurisdiction or not.
Until we react in the strongest possible way to such brutal acts, we will always be the victim and those evils will keep on making mockery of us. I am not a supporter of POTA but that was one of the weapons with us to give these barbarians their due in a faster way and that is one of the examples of strong reaction. Mohammad Afzal is still waiting in some prison of india, whether he is accused or not, I am not sure because even the government is not sure about that even after seven years of attack on Indian parliament.
I have cited these examples to show that people in the power react to these incidents in the most animated way but when it comes to react by strong deeds, I am still waiting for a single national level stringent measure to be taken by this government.
So, we are not reactive. Are we pro-active, The answer is big NO.
The best example to talk about is our own city Mumbai. Other day, I was in Hypercity to do my weekly shopping, There is a lady who does all the security checks at the entrance. She tells me to open the bag. I open one of the zips of the bag; she looks at it from outside and tells me to go ahead. There were two others parts of the bag which were not even unzipped by her.
Lets take example of security measures taken on on one of the most soft targets, the railway stations. You go to any metro station in London, NY or Chicago, They do random baggage checks. In our city, it used to happen for a couple of months after bomb blast in 2006. We don’t have it any more because it seems that the terrorists have sent a letter to mumbai police that they won’t attack mumbai any more. Their targets have changed because Mumbai is alert now.
Forget about the system and people in power, Are we as a society pro-active. I will say no. When I enter my office, The security guard ask us to show the security badge, If you see the reaction of majority of employees, it is like the poor chap is asking him for some favor as some beggars on traffic signals. You won’t believe some of them even escape the check because either they are big guys or they are smart drivers.
These are the incidents which reflects that either politicians, administrators or we the common people of India as a society is still not pro-active against this threat which is hell-bent on taking the lives of hundreds of innocent individuals every six month. And, off course, the frequency is all bound to go up because they know neither we react with all our capacity and nor we are proactive.
Though I know that there won’t be any reaction to this appeal, but still, nothing wrong in trying, the government of India must put in place the most redundant security policy to protect our internal security. The innocent people are at the disposable of these barbarians in all parts of country – Kashmir, Mumbai, Rajasthan, Bihar, U.P, Hyderabad, New Delhi, in the temples and on the trains. Can we now please react as a stronger nation and stronger society?
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