The Maoist Issue

The television screens have scorched and the newspapers bled in ink with the 'Maoist Menace' that has gripped the Indian state as a whole and West Bengal in particular. There has been widespread violence and the Maoists have shown that they are tough customers to deal with.

Their plank for this bloody agitation and revolution is that the Indian state has failed its people in deep forests that are inhabited by the tribals. This surely is a dark reality that the state machinery has been made to come face-to-face with. But the question is : What would be achieved by taking the path of violence?

A little introspection into the modus operandi of the Maoist 'revolutionaries' would show that ideology and practice are two poles apart for them. They might swear by the Communist ideology, but they also swear by the campaign of terror and bloodshed.

Who is to blame for this situation?

The Indian Union has distinctly divided affairs of the state in the State List, that encompasses the duties of individual state governments, and the Central List, which encompasses the key responsibility areas of the Central Government.

The West Bengal government falls flat on counts of no development and pathetic living conditions that have existed in these tribal areas for long. The development of these areas is the responsibility of the state government and with 32 years of rule, if the WB government can't provide even basic sanitation to the natives, their moral right to continue in office ceases to exist.

Are there any alternatives?

There don't seem to be, at least any viable ones. The arch rival of the rulers of WB is the Trinamool Congress. This party is headed by a woman by the name of Mamata Bannerjee. She also happens to be the Railway Minister at the Centre. It is a strange situation that the people of WB would be confronted with in the upcoming assembly elections. On one side is a government that has done its best to retain WB in a time warp where that last 32 years have just gone by, without any one's knowledge.

On the other side is TC, whose leader swears by anti-SEZ ideas. She seems completely bankrupt when it comes to ideas about development issues and poverty alleviation, just like the incumbents.

But I guess Didi, as Mamata Banerjee is called by her followers, would bring TC to power in WB in the coming assembly elections. The electorate have seen the worst. For them any change would be for the good, as the worst is what they are living in.

Oh, and the question of the Maoists. The Central government has declared them as a terrorist organization. They enjoy the same status as that of LeT and LTTE. The rulers of WB have, surprisingly, voiced their concerns against this action. Talk about proactively quashing peace!

MBA Students convicted for Murder

I was bewildered to read about the case of two MBA students, Aditi Sharma and Praveen Khandelwal, being convicted for the murder of Aditi's former lover. I feel sorry for the parents of the deceased, Udit Bharati, who was killed by the duo out of the former's opposition to the accused duo's relationship.
It shows how deep the moral degradation has reached in the society! We are talking about young men and women who were studying to get a better job, a better life. Liaisons and relationships do culminate during the college years, and they die down as well. There is bound to be resentment from one party if they feel that they have been taken for a ride or something of that sorts.
But to do away with that person is a cowardly act of the severest nature. You are talking about a person's life. You are not merely hitting him or bashing him up, you are killing him. Finito!
Did the killer duo ever think of what Udit's family would go through, after they get to know that their son is dead? Did Praveen try to put himself in Udit's shoes and think for a moment for the poor chap's family?
To lace the prasad that Udit was given, with poison, is murder in cold blood!
A life sentence is a lease of life that the accused have got that they don't deserve.

My heartfelt feelings go out to the father who had to cremate his son. The mother whose sobs won't ever end. To the family of a young man, who wanted to do something good with his life, but could not take the ups and downs of a relationship at the face of it. The guy who must have had a vision for his life.

I do not know who Udit was, nor the killers. But as a human being, as a young man, as someone who loves his family and is loved by his family, I feel terrible to have read such a display of hatred and cadaverous emotions.

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!