A Matter of Self Respect

The agitation in Seemandhra begs the question, too little, too late? A possible explanation is that the people were waiting for the politicians to oppose bifurcation of the state. When they were not forthcoming the unions and people decided to take things into their own hands. One thing seems quite clear. For whatever reason, the Seemandhra politicians lack the drive that their Telangana counterparts had. Even after the bifurcation was announced formally there was dithering in their ranks as to what to do next.

Added to this situation is a Chief Minister who, has made it quite clear where his sympathies lie. On the whole we had the pro-Telangana camp which was quite clear as to what they wanted. It is the pro-United Andhra camp that seems confused. If the Congress is to be believed both YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had supported the decision to carve out a separate Telangana earlier. There was a volte-face once the public reaction in Seemandhra became apparent. Even now Chandrababu Naidu seems more opposed to the manner in which the state was bifurcated than to the actual bifurcation itself.

The agitating government employees seem to be losing steam. What else can one expect from a salaried class which is striking without pay? They justifiedly want the politicians to take over. However at least the Congress ones seem to be waiting for the powers-that-be to reject their resignations before they proceed further. The Congress for one seems to be playing a game of attrition, where it is not doing anything hoping the agitation will die down. It has formed another committee to look into the present situation. What is this if not a delaying tactic? Where is the attempt to gather all stakeholders in one place and reach (an impossible?) consensus?

Moving to the actual topic of this post, till date I feel irritated when someone refers to me as a Madrasi. Also when I say I am a south Indian typically one of the first questions is potentially whether I am a Tamilian. It was actually because of Andhra Pradesh and the likes of Potti Sriramulu that today we have states based on languages. Nehru was not very warm to the idea as he felt it would further divide the country. The state as it is today was formed in1956. However it is said that the people of Andhra got an identity only after NT Rama Rao emerged onto the scene. Look at Andhra Pradesh today. A foreign visitor can be forgiven for thinking that the Nehru-Gandhi family was from the state. Most major institutions, buildings and schemes are named after members of this family. For instance

1. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport - Hyderabad

2. Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station - Hyderabad

3. Nehru Zoological Park - Hyderabad

4. Indira Gandhi Zoological Park -Visakhapatnam

5. Rajiv Swagruha

I myself did not know that Tanguturi Prakasam was the first Chief Minister of Andhra State and that Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy was the first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (formed after Telangana was integrated). Where are institutions that bear these names? PV Narasimha Rao was a scholar and a polyglot. There is a expressway named after him in Hyderabad. 

Therefore it is not surprising to see politicians waiting for indications on what to do next from the "High Command" in a state which has forgotten its leaders and heros. What will happen next? The government is  mulling imposition of ESMA. If this is done the only possible alternative to capitulation would be for the entire government workforce to follow the path of civil disobedience and non cooperation. How many will the government arrest? However we must not forget the cost to the society and the average citizen in all of this. Care must be taken to ensure that at least hospitals and such critical institutions are not affected. One more thing. As long as the agitation is restricted to Seemandhra the government will happily sit and not do anything as the suffering would be limited to the average citizen there. When the impact spreads like it has - stoppage of water to Chennai, decreased power production affecting the entire southern grid - the government sits up and takes notice. This is when the threat of action like invoking ESMA looms. This is when the mettle of the protestors will be put to the test.

Where is Sonia Gandhi?

The Italian Job has been in the news of late. It is quite possible that the Supreme Court will hold the Italian Ambassador guilty of contempt of court tomorrow. Does this mean the diplomat will be jailed? He certainly cannot be let off lightly. He has given an undertaking to the highest court in the land and broke his word. Even if it is his government which is responsible, he as its representative is to be held responsible. Amidst all of this the Congress leadership seems to be strangely silent. One would like to know the reaction of the Congress President to the entire incident.

Further in the name of increasing compliance and security the government seems intent on framing laws that can be very well abused. The arrests made in the name of the IT Act are well known. Now even possession of laundered money, irrespective of the value is being made punishable. For e.g. if a father launders money via his daughter's account she can be arrested. I got this information from today's Economic Times. Why is the government intent on framing such laws? Why this hunger for power?

Really, Mr. Khurshid? Also, build apartments for our MPs

Our External Affairs Minister had a "courtesy meeting" with the visiting Pakistan Prime Minister, Raja Pervez. No terrorism-related issues were discussed as this was a personal visit. So why did the External Affairs Minister meet him? And this after the recent blasts in Hyderabad!

"Abhyaagatah swayam Vishnuh" is an ancient saying of this land. We believe in treating our guests as divine beings. Apparently the Pak PM prayed for peace in his country. We hope that Mr. Khurshid prayed for some sense to come into the Pakistani leadership - I do believe the people want friendly ties. It is the ruling class that needs to change.

Another thought came to my mind recently. The area in Delhi which is designated as Lutyens' Delhi is a property gold mine. Why should our "public representatives" live in luxurious bungalows? The present moment, when the economy is down, is the right time for our MPs to show their public service credentials. Imagine that we build a set of apartments, okay luxurious apartments for our MPs. Imagine what can be done with the land that can be freed up. There will be vociferous objections on the grounds of security. But seriously, if that is indeed the case our rulers' faith in our security forces will be apparent.

Another objection that would come up would be that this is a protected area heritage wise. Is this the heritage we want to preserve? If the government does not want to demolish the existing buildings let them designate them for different purposes. Throw these open to the public, develop these as parks, educational centres, science centres etc. The possibilities are many. What is needed is will.

How much longer?

There is enormous grief across the country at the death of the young woman from Delhi. The political class has been swift to promise that death penalty will be imposed in serious crimes for sexual assault also. There are also many protestors who have asked for the rapists to be hanged. The courts will decide the quantum of punishment for the accused. But if we take one step back and think, will this really solve the issue? Has death penalty for murder eradicated murders? 

There have been many things pointed out in the course of the last few days which need to be kept in mind.

1. At the basic level we need to learn to respect women more. In today's world teaching people to treat other women as their mothers and sisters is well nigh impossible. However can't we at least follow the principle of "look but don't touch"?

2. Our films should emphasise less on sexuality. It is very difficult to find a Telugu film of late which does not have at least one item number. Even if there is no direct item number the dresses the heroines wear, and the language and innuendo used leave little room for doubt as to what is being talked about. Unfortunately our movies seem to have a lot of importance in our lives. 

3. Parents should inculcate some values in the first school - the home. There are some TV shows today where proud parents send their children to dance to some quite vulgar songs. There are undoubtedly many parents who take delight in their children singing and dancing to vulgar numbers.

4. Our society stigmatizes rape victims. Imagine what the actual number would be if all rapes in our country were reported. In many cases the incident is simply not reported keeping the family's honour and future in mind. There was a recent case where a girl was raped by a relative and his friend. Only the rape by the friend was reported. Even in the Delhi case we still do not know the actual name of the girl. Parents should have the determination and guts to take action against the rapists.

5. The system should support parents in this regard. Though it would be a dark day indicating the nadir of our "civilization" setting up fast track courts for rape is a step in the right direction. Our legal system largely pays lip service to the maxim that justice delayed is justice denied. How many times can a rape victim visit courts and recount the horrific incident perpetrated against her? 

6. Even before talking about courts the police system should also be mentioned. There have been recent reports of a rape victim being raped by the police she had gone to. What is this country coming to? There was another incident in Punjab recently where a girl committed suicide after the police refused to register a case. Strict action should be taken against such policemen.

In my opinion more than death the right punishment for rapists would be to chemically castrate them. Rape is an act where (more often than not) a man shows his power over a woman. It is an act where he might wish to show his might or superiority over the woman, where he seeks to put down what he sees as her pride or impudence, where he wises to subjugate her and "put her in her place". Thus it is an assertion of power and masculinity. What punishment would be more effective than removing this very power and letting him live the rest of his life like that? How long will it be before we see a rape-free India?

Edit: I am happy I am not the only one thinking along these lines. Check this and this.

Do we invite invasion of privacy?

There is always a hue and cry whenever a news item about new measures from either a website or the government that can potentially affect citizen/user privacy surfaces and rightly so. I believe that each individual is entitled to some amount of personal privacy.

However social networks offer a glimpse into something slightly different also. I am sure research has already been done or is being done or will be done on this issue. Human beings love attention. We love being pampered and what is this without attention? A social network offers us an opportunity like never before to gain attention. To be completely honest I believe even a blogger is part of this crowd. There might be a desire to disseminate one's views to the larger public. But there is an underlying motive of gaining attention in this also. For e.g., whenever I write a new post I share the link on Twitter and Facebook. I regularly check the number of page views. Frankly to me this is an ego boost though I am nowhere in the list of at least widely followed bloggers.

I frankly however (maybe hypocritically) find it irritating when people air their display of affection publicly. It is one thing to post photos. Here one might want to share these with one's friends and relatives. It is completely a different thing to air grievances like "Why me, God?" and "I miss my koochikoo" on social networks. This would, at least in my opinion be diabetical without being sweet. Assume my friend's boy/girl friend just dumped her/him. S/he puts up a status saying something like, "Why me?" or something else similarly cryptic. Now s/he will get sympathetic (from those in the know or those who understand) or questioning comments below the post. Now will s/he be willing to answer publicly the posts which ask what happened? I assume that s/he will not be. In such a case what is the point of airing the grievances publicly? If one is looking for support and expresses one's sorrows publicly would it not make sense to come out completely?

This was not the case before the advent of social networks. If such a situation happened previously a girl's friends would sit with her and say unmentionable things about the boy and his unmentionables (I got this from a girl, so ladies, please don't protest). In essence there will be intense bitching against the guy. If the guy is the dumpee his friends sit with him and try to tell him that there are more important things in life without the bitching. At least this is what a guy is supposed to do. Look how the world changes!

Is Digvijay Singh serious?

First of all I have a doubt. Unless I am wrong I believe that it is legally wrong to suppress truth about a crime when you know a crime has taken place. Look at this article. Digvijay Singh says that family should not be attacked. He claims to have evidence against Vajpayee's son-in-law but does not want to mention it. Can someone from the police department please question this man? This person says his party has never attacked family members. If my memory serves me right, some time before Vajpayee became the PM there was a comment either from Sonia Gandhi or (most probably) Ghulam Nabi Azad. The quote was to the effect that Vajpayee is a bachelor. So how come he has a daughter? Vajpayee retorted that he had never seen that kind of character assassination in politics. I am not a career politician. Digvijay Singh is. I believe he should get his facts right before he goes onto national press or television.

Also if I am not mistaken in many cases it is the relatives and family members of politicians who help in hoarding unaccounted-for wealth. So I believe Digvijay Singh wants all politicians to go scot free. They should only remember to keep their black money with family members, no questions asked!

He is said to be the political guru of Rahul Gandhi. There is a tale by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Apparently he came across a big frog being swallowed by one variety of snake. The frog was too big for the snake. However it was not willing to let the frog go. Thus both were suffering. Had it been a cobra it would have long since consumed the frog. Sri Ramakrishna says that this was like the relationship between an unfit guru and his disciple. If the guru is not proper both have to suffer. Is this the reason why in spite of all his "efforts"Rahul Gandhi does not seem to be making any headway anywhere (apart from maybe in the Congress and in some select foreign holiday destinations)?

Further what is it with Beni Prasad Verma? This man is bent on shoving his foot into his mouth whenever he opens it. Unfortunately I do not remember his previous gems. Detractors of Salman Khurshid must have been cackling with laughter when they heard his remarks - that 71 lakhs was too small an amount for a central minister to embezzle. True, in this day of 2G and coalgate when the scams are in hundreds if not thousands, sorry thousands if not lakhs of crores 71 lakhs is too small an amount!

Remove individual sports bodies!

Moving to the second topic, I came across this article recently. I had earlier talked here and here about BCCI and other sports. Let us get a few things straight:
1. In my opinion any organization which claims to do anything representative of the nation has to be open to public scrutiny irrespective of the source of its funds.
2. Cricket is the richest sport and BCCI - India's richest sports body - claims to select an Indian cricket team.
3. There is a sports ministry which is responsible for sports overall.
4. Various key positions in sports organizations today are manned by politicians.

In such a scenario I propose that there be modifications made to the overall structure.
1. There will be a sports minister and ministry above all.
2. Let there be IAS officers in-charge of the day-to-day administration of individual sports. These should be assisted in an advisory role by a respected sports player.
3. However for selection only experienced sportsperson should be present. Further they should also play a clear and prominent role to decide the training needs of the sportspersons.
4. There should not be any individual purses for the various sports bodies. Let there be a common pool for all funds. This might sound unjustified to some. Why should the funds obtained through sponsorship rights of say a cricket match be used for tennis? Well, I pay tax to the government. Do I have the right to claim that the government provide solely for my needs only? Is it justified (I am pretty sure Ayn Rand is turning in her grave)? However sportspersons represent the nation on the global stage. It is the government's responsibility to ensure they are properly trained. Let us not participate for participation's sake.
5. The news article mentioned above talks about funds being given to sports bodies run by PT Usha et al. This is a great idea. These are people who have won laurels for the country and themselves. Let there be all possible help for them.
6. However in all cases there should be accountability. This is zero today. Suresh Kalmadi was never penalized during his entire tenure as head of India's Olympics Committee for our dismal performance year-after-year.
7. We cannot avoid politicians in India. Let them be the overall bosses only if required. Please let our boards not be populated by them unnecessarily.

What right do the likes of Sharad Pawar, Arun Jaitley and Rajeev Shukla claim to be on the boards of cricket bodies? Today there is money in cricket. We find politicians in profusion there. Tomorrow if there is money elsewhere we will find them there.