Thursday, May 29, 2008

Its a Gujjar on the Street!

I had thought that I would not be bashing the 'Gujjar cause' sometime in the near future, but well, what can I do! The circumstances won't just let me sit and watch like a dumb-ass!
So in total media glare (its more like a reality show these days on the TV than journalism. Hmmm, journalism....think that sort of a thing existed), the wrath of the Gujjar was unleashed in National Capital Region (NCR) today. There were disruptions for hours owing to the glorified demonstrations taking place all over the place.

Trains. Vehicular traffic. Grocery supplies. Sanity. Everything just stopped in their steps.

Why? Because the Gujjar was angry that he was not down the social ladder and that he was better placed in the social heirarchy! I would term it as 'insanity of the worst kind'. What were they trying to prove by stopping the movement of trains and blocking roads? As if they had not created enough problems already!
Let's just outline the reasons why the Gujjar youth, or reverently called as 'Gujjar ka chhora' by few, was on the street on a weekday, creating a whole lot of havoc more than the Left's stand on the Nuclear Issue (a post on that would be here soon!)?
Was it to, let me recollect, agitate against the decision to prevent them from sliding down the social ladder? Or was it to come on live TV? Or was it to just kill time destroying something, rather than sitting obscurely in a village under a tree?
Why wasn't the Gujjar youth in a college or a school, studying?
Why wasn't he preparing for an examination for a job?
Why wasn't he putting in efforts to clear one of the entrance examinations to get into a prestigious place of learning?
You know why?
Simple. RESERVATION. Who the hell needs to study for a job, or for a place in a great place of learning, or even who needs education, when you can get all of that by scoring a mere 30%, as seats are going to be RESERVED for you?!
What if people from other castes and tribes come out on streets every other day, demanding RESERVATIONS? A long summer break, eh?!
One one hand is this naked dance of high-handedness and bullying and on the other side is a man who is hell bent to make a mockery of the whole official machinery and the integrity of the country! Where are we heading to?
When such questions arise, we turn to the armed forces and the armed forces personnel.

But here in Rajasthan, we have an ex-serviceman, a Colonel (Colonel Kirori Singh Bainsla, for the uninitiated) for God's sake, leading a bunch of people as if he were waging a war against someone! You protected the borders of the country to prevent the intrusion from our external enemies, and today, you are the reason that people are not able to go back to their homes, they are not getting essential supplies, and there is chaos wherever you see!
An officer is a gentleman for life!

Is it a battle zone or a society that we want to live in?

When would the Indian Government at the Centre and the Governments at the State level have the balls to provide reservation in jobs and educational institutions, just ON THE BASIS OF THEIR ECONOMIC SITUATION?
Have we sunk so deep in the dirty and obnoxious quagmire of vote-bank-politics, that we have forgot what a civil society needs for development? The answer today is yes. And it will be the same for centuries to come if the undeserving get the resources meant for the deserving.
There will be many such agitations and there will be many such disruptions if the very basis of the reservation (it was a noble idea to start with. Refer the Constitution of India for that) is distorted to favor a few, instead of the ones who really need it.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Mr. Raj 'Zealot' Thackeray

A few days back I was watching a CBS documentary, 'Hitler - The Rise of Evil'. I was astonished by the anger and hate he had against the Jews. He would spit venom against the Jews whenever he got the chance to. The reason stated was : The Jews were taking away all the jobs and contaminating the social scene in Germany.
But to draw analogies would be wrong, even excessively stupid in terms of current affairs in India.

Mr. Thackeray is a zealot. A person presumably very driven by the love for Maharashtra and its people and its language. Its a different story altogether that his kids would not even dare to study in a native language medium school (marathi medium school in this case). But that can be forgiven, because the next generation of netas has to be above the masses, then only would they be netas, right?

So Mr. Thackeray has taken a liking to blast anything and everything that is remotely related to UP and Bihar. He states that the people from other states are different, because they are also nourishing anti UP-Bihar sentiments. If the 'messiah' of the masses just throws a glance to the progress that HIS ( It is the state of a billion people, called Indians, which the messiah has somehow forgot ) state has made, it is because of the cheap labor that the Eastern UP and Bihar belt provides in terms of factory workers and laborers. It is very easy to rouse the sentiments of a populace which is more than ready to bash anyone who is doing better that them financially and socially.
The sad thing is that this feeling of xenophobia is being bred into the blood of the people at the grass root level. They are being lured to a theory which is far moved from the realities of life. Roti. Kapda. Makaan.
Never in any of his venomous speeches, has Mr. Thackeray mentioned even a word about development or the measures that he would take in order to make the lives better of the people who were listening to him. All he does is spew venom and garner applause.
The people of Maharashtra should be proud of the legacy that they have. Shivaji is revered not only in Maharashtra, but the world over. The people need to realise that they belong to a country...INDIA. The allegiance that they have, should be first to the country and then to the state.
By instigating violence against the 'migrants' and driving them away from their workplaces would be a step further towards disintegration of the country. Who would need Pakistan or Bangladesh when we have our own brigade of people who are out to divide the country from within! The enemies of the nation would just sip on a cold beer and bask in the stupidity of the Indians.

The Marathis are learned people and hold high posts in academic institutions like IITs and in corporate world. They value education. What if each and every one of them is driven out from their place of dwelling and sent to Maharashtra?
And Mr Thackeray has got problems with 'migrant students' coming to the colleges in Pune! If this is not a propensity towards 'showing the finger' to the very basic founding principles of the Indian society and the Indian Republic, then what is it? Reminds me of Partition!
I fail to understand why people want to create enmity and differences between otherwise peacefully coexisting communities? For a few votes? That's it?

Sardar Patel would have chosen to relinquish his Indian citizenship, rather than being called a citizen of a country where the rule book is thrown into the bin and spit upon such blatantly!

The Desire to have a 'Reserved' tag

Just a week before the anniversary of the 'Gujjar' agitation to demand reservation in the state of Rajasthan the Gujjars have set the ball rolling, yet again. Their 'Robin Hood', Col. Bainsla has led them onto the streets and the gang has wreaked havoc yet again.
But why did they have to do all that? RESERVATION is the word.
Now if we just introspect, we have reserved seats in buses and trains for the elderly and the differently abled. In short, for those who are incapable to perform their daily duties and ablutions on their own. How the Gujjars in Rajasthan qualify for reservation is beyond my understanding.
The Constitution of India provided for reservation for the backward classes to ensure they come at par with the better endowed, over time. The Supreme Court ruling has reiterated the same in spirit and conduct, by excluding the Creamy Layer of OBCs from getting the benefits of reservation.
The fact that the Rajasthan government under Vasundhara Raje Scindia had diverted funds in excess of 230 crores to the 6 districts with Gujjar majority has been brushed aside with the omnipresent zeal to get 'reservation'!

Since when has becoming reserved become a prestige issue? And since when has it become legitimate to ask for reservation by crippling the transport network and the economy?

It all stems from the quagmire that the masses have been entrenched into. Reservation means easy jobs and easy money at the cost of those who work hard to clinch the same government seat or job, for the most. It sounds preposterous to go over and burn trucks and create a whole lot of ruckus just to prove that you are in need of some desperate monetary help and social upliftment. But doesn't a fit person, holding crutches just to garner support, appear to be an impostor?

I might have got a bit harsh on the issue, but to ask for reservation, in my opinion is not dignified in any manner. And more so, when there is not racial or social discrimination against the tribe in concern, like the other less privileged ones.

The burning trucks on the national highway. Blood spilled all over the place. Chaos reigning high.
Had the same effort been put to good and constructive work, the things would have been entirely different.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Current Affairs - India and the World

We are on Technorati!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Bangalored!

I must say, this weekend turned out to be a real good one for Bangalore. First, it gets a spanking new airport, which should conform to world standards to justify the 2500 crore spent on the first phase of the infrastructure development. We've heard a lot about the connectivity problem, so I won't delve into it. But would love to ask the well-heeled industry people who are lobbying against the new airport on grounds of poor connectivity......Where were you for the past 6 years that it took the airport to come into shape? Don't you think that the same pro activeness shown now could have brought about a whole sea of change had it been taken up a year in advance? But that's a different story for a different day, isn't it?
So where was I? Yes, the new airport!
Well, there were 'teething troubles', for sure. Reports of no power, baggage claim taking aeons and the likes.It sure shouldn't have been there as we are now in a process of building an India based on 'First Time Right' quality standards. More so apt to Bangalore, considering the fact that the economy of the city, and that of the state to a certain extent, depends on the IT/BT sector. These two sectors are always 'striving hard' to achieve 'First Time Right' quality standards. And just adding to the point of the airport being out of city limits, the Suwarnabhumi Airport at Bangkok is 25 kms from downtown Bangkok.
It's pure economics. Cheap land. More possibilities to expand. And the city stays quiet.
So, coming back to the new airport. It surely has more conveyor belts for International Arrivals and Departures (the HAL one had just ONE belt). So that is nothing to worry about now. Three lounges and a host of luxuries to splurge on. It just isn't easy to go 100% trouble free when going live with an airport. It's a huge task, for God's sake! Take the example to the new Hong Kong International Airport which was commissioned in July 1998. Quoting from Wikipedia : " For three to five months after its opening, it suffered various severe organisational, mechanical, and technical problems that almost crippled the airport. At one time, the government reopened the cargo terminal at Kai Tak Airport (name of the old airport) to handle freight traffic due to a breakdown at the new cargo terminal, named Super Terminal One (ST1), however after six months the airport started to operate normally."
I just hope the airport comes up to international standards and the travellers too rise up to international standards and stop spitting in corners at their leisure at the airport. They surprisingly become very American or European once they land in the US or Europe and despise the act of spitting in the open, as if they had never done so!

Coming to the second good news would be the total wipe-out of JD(S) in the recently help assembly elections. Just for statistics' sake, here is the final seat count:
BJP : 110
Congress : 80
JD(S) : 28
Others : 6
Discussion on the whole 'Dance of Democracy' ( I love this term!) would be a totally different blog story, maybe a series of them! So, why the elation at elimination of JD(S)?Well, how long do people think they can fool the masses?!! You fight with your dad and create a political drama. And then you join hands with him to create, what else, another political drama! To witness the way JD(S) withdrew support from BJP reminded me of kids in class I. One kid likes candy, but he had promised in front of the Headmaster that he would share it with his friend after he has had his share of the candy. But the kid just can't get his hands off the candy, and doesn't give the other half to the other kid, as promised. what ensues is a kiddish bickering over issues, and before you know, the candy is out of reach for both the kids! It was just amazing to see old men squabble like kids, and that too on National television.

So now Mr. Yeddy is going to be sworn in as the CM of Karnataka. The BJP has finally been able to form a government of it's own in South India, in the backyard of a calamity-stricken populace that JD(S) is.Now all the people of Karnataka are hoping is that BJP delivers on the promises that it had made, or it's going to be a long holiday for the BJP in Karnataka, as far as working as the Government is concerned.

And why does the blog read Bangalored?
It's because I witnessed something, none less than a miracle, on the road today. Taking a U-turn at Sony World junction today (the amber traffic signal lights blinking), an oncoming car driver actually stopped and gestured to the young couple on a bike, right in front of me, to take the turn before the car. And that was a polite gesture! I mean, I thought people were getting more and more rash and road-rage-enthusiasts. But this was such a great relief! I can't forget the car driver's face. Calm as a llama. All of us become like him, and voila! No traffic woes! But that's a Utopian concept that I have put forth!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Ahoy!

Yet another new beginning for me. And yet another one that I had been writhing for!
This is my world through my eyes, through my thoughts.
You are more than welcome to chip in and discuss the issues that matter.