A time For Change
As the horror of what happened on Nov 26, 2008, still resides in our mind,refusing to go away, and it should not at all, the outrage has begun. We had citizen’s marches, candlelight vigils, online petitions, angry blogs et all, targeting the politicians and officials, justifiably.
We have two options here, one is take the usual chalta hai attitude, and get along with our lives, our cricket matches, our Bollywood gossip and forget what happened.
The other is still to go on with our daily life as before, but not to forget what happened on Nov 26,2008, and keep the anger going. It is a tough balance, but as i had said earlier, if we still persist with our “Business as Usual” attitude, we are in for disaster.
Now even if Nov 26,2008, had not occured, and we were going along with our daily lives, there is something far more shocking. Till November we had lost close to a 1000 lives this year alone in India. Bomb blasts in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Jaipur, Gauhati, floods killing hundreds of people in Bihar and Orissa, and making more people homeless, violence in Orissa, Karnataka claiming lives, 200 odd people losing their lives in a temple stampede. Well even if the final figure may be somewhat less, the fact remains that excluding Nov 28,2008, a large number of lives have been lost, in tragedies that could have been averted. And that brings the question
“Do lives in India have no value?”
What makes an R.R.Patil dismiss the terror in Mumbai as a small incident, what makes a V.S.Atchunandan, come up with an insensitive statement about the family of a slain NSG commando, what makes a Naqvi denounce those protesting the failure of the political class as terrorists?
The fact is they do not really care. The bitter truth is that our politicians simply can’t look beyond their kasba, their mohalla or their constituency. R.R. Patil can say “terror in Mumbai” is a small thing, because he knows that while lot of people will be outraged, nothing is going to happen to him. Come election time, he can go back to his home town in Sangli Dist, promise freebies and come to power again. Had such an attack broken out in Sangli, Mr. Patil would not have dared to make the remark, that such things happen, because he knows that will be the end of his political career. And if Sandeep Unnikrishnan’s family, was not in Bangalore, but in Malamphuza in Palakkad Dist, Atchuthanand, would not have dared to make that crassly insensitive remark, because he knows that would mean losing the polls itself.
The sad fact is that R.R.Patil does not realize he is not the DY. CM of Sangli Dist, nor does V.S.Atchuthanand understand that when he is in Bangalore, he is representing the state of Kerala, not the Dist of Palakkad.
This is what our political class has become over the years, totally self absorbed, totally insensitive, totally boorish and unable to see beyond the tip of their nose. And if nothing else works, evoke the card of marytrdom, by claiming they are persecuted, because they belong to X community. I would not be surprised tomorrow if Shivraj Patil and R.R.Patil, go around claiming that they were asked to resign, because they happened to be Lingayats, and they start off Lingayat Mukti Morcha, so that they can get those 4-5 crucial seats by appealing to the “wounded Lingayat Pride”. But even assuming that such a thing happens, the question begs WHY.
Well one of the reasons is that we rarely cast our vote, we generally tend to vote our caste. Candidates are not choosen based on their ability, but on caste configurations and how many voters of X caste or community are there. So a Laloo Yadav, could get away with 15 years of misrule in Bihar, just because he got his caste combination right. It is shameful that Vilasrao Deshmukh even got a second chance to become a Maharashtra CM, considering his first term itself was a disaster, just because the “combinations” were right. And Deve Gowda, could get away with his politics of blackmail and obstruction, just because he represented an influential caste combination. Never mind the fact that Mr.Gowda did the greatest damage to Karnataka. Narendra Modi, can invoke Gujarati asmita and cynically exploit riots to become the CM in 2002. Whatever you say about Modi being a great administrator, the fact remains that had it not been for the riots in 2002, neither BJP nor Modi, would have gained power second time around.
Laloo, Modi, Deve Gowda, Vilasrao are not aliens from Mars, nor are they are from Timbuktoo, they are ordinary Indians like you and me. They get away with their antics and chicanery, because they know that it does not affect them. If Raj Thackeray, merrily goes around with his single point mission of bashing up hapless North Indian cabbies and milkmen, it is because he knows there are people who actually support his agenda. Let all the Marathi manoos in Mumbai come out, and say that we are not going to tolerate any more attacks on non Maharashtrian people, let them hold dharnas against Raj Thackeray, i am sure as hell Raj T, would in fact be holding sabhas, praising the contribution of North Indians to Mumbai.
For quite some time we have been sitting in our own glass bubble, pretending that what is happening outside, will not affect us. The problem is that glass bubbles don’t last long, they burst. And when it bursts the results can be horrendous. We have the elections comming up, and i am saying once again, please Go and Vote. And if you say, that whom to vote for, ok here are some questions
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Have you first of all registered as a voter?
Do you know in which constituency you have the voting rights?
Do you know the details of the candidates standing from your constituency?
Do you know what is the manifesto of the candidates?
If you are not able to be physically present in your constituency, do you know of any mechanism, where you could cast your vote in absentia?
Well those questions are for you to answer, and if you are not sure, check out the Election Comission Websites, there are websites for election commission in every state, check it out, get the details. Sitting in front of your computer or TV or home theater, and cribbing with friends over how screwed the politicians are, or taking out candlelight marches and furiously blogging on net is not going to help anymore.
There is something called Right to Information Act, get to know of it, and find out how you can use it. Get to know of the Constitution, know what are your fundamental duties, know what rights you do have. Ignorance is not bliss under any circumstances. For far too long, politicians and Govt officers have been getting away with murder, because they know that the junta does not care. Once they do know that the junta does care, and it could cost them their jobs or kursi, they are not going to be as callous and unresponsive.
And it is also time for us to get out of this “Thank God, it does not happen here” mindset. For a very very long time, average Americans, turned on their TV sets, saw what was happening in the world, said “Oh that’s bad, but we are safe here” and went back to their dinner, until 9/11 happened. Post 9/11, while American’s knowledge of the world has not improved drastically, they know that they can no longer take things for granted. For quite some time, when news of bomb blasts or terror attacks were flashed on TV, it would be “Oh so bad, but yeah we are safe here, it won’t happen to us”. We thought we were having a positive attitude. In reality, we were just shutting our eyes. It might not have happened to you today, but sooner or later it is going to happen to you. When local trains were bombed in 2006, we had people saying, but Oh no see its those Gujjus who travel by those trains, see they bombed only the first class compartments because thats where all those Gujju traders travel, so its like a kind of retribution for Gujarat riots. So i am not a Gujju, and i dont travel by train, so i am safe.
Well actually the terrorists dont really care for such complex dynamics of class, religion and caste. They want to make a statement, and they don’t really care whether you are from Byculla or Bhendi Bazaar or Malabar Hills or Goregaon, or whether your surname is Patel or Khan or Mishra or Patil. In fact this year it has been proved that terrorism affects people in the North( Delhi), South( Bangalore), East( Gauhati) and West(Jaipur, Ahmedabad) equally. And no terrorists dont differentiate between Congress ruled states, BJP ruled states or states ruled by other parties. So stop pretending that you are not going to be safe, you are not, none of us around is. It is sad, but that is the truth.
You want to do something for your society, you have ideas and want to share with others. Go ahead. No you don’t need to quit your job . There are dime a dozen NGO’s out there, which are actually implementing those ideas. You have a cause which you hold dear to your heart- child labor, infrastructure, public transport, healthcare, whatever seek out an NGO, and devote some time on your weekends. Go to an orphanage spend time with the kids there, just an hour will do, talk to them, reach out to them. They are children with dreams, see if you can make them come true. In fact right now every major company in India, has a social service wing. Join it, get to know of their activites, pitch in with whatever you can. Your effort might be small, but its a part of the larger picture. There are dime a dozen causes, out there waiting to be addressed. Take up what interests you. And yes if you are going in just for some photo ops, and trying to showcase you are a “socially conscious” person, that is sheer waste of time.
Right now there is an anger, an outrage among us. And i am hoping it will not die down. But anger by itself is meaningless, if not properly channeled. It is when that anger is focussed, and given a proper outlet, that it has use. Else it just becomes an empty angst, to be shown till the next terror strike or next disaster happens. Dont try to be a hero, it works in movies, it might get you the 15 minutes of fame on TV, but beyond that it solves nothing. Right now we keep showing our anger against soft targets- our cricketers and Bollywood stars. We are so angry when our players come back after exiting the first round of World Cup, that we show our “heroism” by pelting their homes with stones, attacking their homes, threatening their family members. Had we shown that same level of heroism and passion we display for our cricket players, with our political leaders, they would not have been so callous and unresponsive. We had that disgusting program called “Match ka Mujrim”, where we would gather like a bloodthirsty Roman mob and call for the head of a cricket player, just because he did not make runs that day. Why is that we don’t demand the same from our elected representatives, who in fact have been letting us down more times than our much abused cricketers do.
Which is more shameful- Rahul Dravid not scoring runs for a long time, or our elected representatives not even bothering to address our issues? Is Ram Gopal Verma going to Taj much more shameful, than the fact that a certified non performer like Vilas Rao Deshmukh, has not yet been booted out, because the Congress has yet to find a leader who will not upset the caste and electoral dynamics? We need to get our priorities right immediately. We have the anger and passion within us, and now is the time we need to use it in the right direction. And i dont think i need to tell which direction it is.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Thanks for writing such a thought provoking article.
Our attitude towards Politics must change.caste,religion and other issues are irrelevant and are declining our mental and social growth.
Ratnakar..if I dont wish to vote..and select the option of abstaining and if majority of Indians manage not register vote in the EVMs then what happens?Re-election or what? Hypothetical situation.
Sourav, yes there would be a re election, which is like an additional expense.
The best thing is to get information about ur candidates.
See for which ever constituency ur voting from, there would be at least 5-6 candidates. So in them, there is an 80% probability that at least one of them will be capable.
It is your decision to vote or not, but at least make sure there is a justifiable reason for it. Get an awareness, know who is contesting, what are their agendas, and then still if you are not convinced, you can abstain.
Also right now the election system works on a “First past the Post” system.
So let us say u don’t feel like voting, and so do many in your constituency, but there would be that 40-50% who would still vote.
The EC only looks at number of people who have voted, and how many have been polled. It does not take into consideration the % of people voting. That in effect means you are having a candidate for whom only 30% of people voted, and the rest 70% have not.
The No Vote principle works, only when we have a proportional representation policy, saying that a candidate is deemed elected only if X% of people in the constituency have voted. In such a situation, the No Vote principle works.
But Ratnakar, the whole problem with the democracy right now is that there is no other alternative left for us. The two main Parties the BJP and CONgress are secualar and psuedo-secular, whenver they please and are full of corruption and incompetence.
The other choice, the regional parties are even worse. I can’t even imagine what kind of country we will be and what governance we will have if and when ppl like Mayawati,Laloo fulfill their long cherised dream of becoming a PM.Less said about the Leftists the better. So what options do people like us, who vote and are very aware about thier representatives, have?
During such a debate with my Dad post Godhra, i asked if there can be a system where only graduates can stand for elections? His one line reply was “Give me Rs20K and i will give a MBA degree”.
And Y blame people like Patil and Deshmukh for the attacks.aren’t we the ones who elected them or their party atleast. I don’t think there is even 1 MLA or MP who is below 35 and is the 1st generation politician in his/her family.
Everyone is either related to someone, or holding the same post for ages.
We will have to come forward and join Politics. I am preety sure, i will. How many of u will?
Shreyansh politicians are the same world over. And if you are speaking about quality of politicians, Italy to date has around 40 or more Govts after WW2, and the political corruption there makes our leaders look like Mahatmas. But as a nation it has ensured most of its citizens have a decent life. Political leaders are the same any where you go, and as we have seen in US, UK maybe far worse.
The only thing is to keep those guys on toes. If you get a political leader in your area, who is service minded, who is visionary, well fantastic nothing like it. But such people are like 1% nowadays, 99% chance is that you get rogues, and i guess we end up choosing the lesser rogue. The only way is to form a votebank of people, not differentiated on caste, community basis, and keep him on toes.
Make a deal with him, straight, you get our votes if you deliver else not. It may not have immediate effect, might not be 100% effective, but if even there is a 30% change, that is a big step forward. Political leaders are just bothered about one thing, votes and power. So hit them where it hurts.
People boycotting polls because they are not satisfied has been happening, but political leaders are scarcely bothered.
Let me give a very hypothetical example.
Say you have a constituency which has around 80 villages.
Now if say 50 of those villages have decided to boycott polls, does it affect the politician, No.
Because there is every chance that some villagers will vote for the said candidate, because he happens to be their biraadari waale or jaath wale. Some villagers might vote, because he has promised freebies.
So who is losing here?? The people in the 50 villages which have decided not to vote, lose out, because the candidate feels, why bother about them. And neither is he going to do anything for the 30 villages which voted for him, because he knows that come election time, he can just appeal in the name of jaath or promise some more freebies.
Now say if those 50 odd villages, join together, and tell him, that unless he delivers, he is not getting their votes, that could cause him to act. He can’t take it for granted. No he might not suddenly become an Ashoka or an Akbar, but yeah at least the fear will make him do something.
What i am saying is not the perfect solution, just my views on this. I would be really happy if this discussion does yield more.
change is the in word……
what i want is accountability…….
corruption will stay as long as humankind lives….
a little vigilance from the part of the citizen and some sane support of the media……u’ll have things falling in place comparatively…..
ratnakar……..u r one prolific writer…..dude its been a at max 3 months since u became an author here and on based on count u might be second only to oz………where were u all these days…
I’m not sure that this time I’m keen to discuss the voting system and the system failure in general… Even America and UK with its advance systems are incompetent to curb this form of insurgency.
We know Afganistan and Pakistan who are the only countries who are required to take action to stem this through education and other means are completely incapable and are infact party to this idea to some extend. Pakistans unacceptance to even have well know criminaly tried in international courts goes to prove either how weak and ineffectual the government has grow or how much they subscribe to this acts of terrorism being right.
The borders of Afganistan and Pakistan are breeding grounds for such ideas. this need to be stemmed now or we will continue to pay the price for our inactions.
I feel this is a new age of war and those breeding grounds must be treated just like war zones.
America cannot openly say that since it is there very weapons which they supplied to these people in their covert operations which are now taking on a life of their own.
America went to war agaist global political will in Iraq to safeguard their oil intrests in the name of 9/11 terriorism when they were fully aware that was not the case.
Why does India have to seek American nod to decide to take action against Pakistan when it knows it is completely right and the world too is aware of the fact( that is why they did not support America on its Iraq attack as it made no sense in terms of terrorisim justice).
This is sort of off-topic, but very important. Currently, NRI’s do not have to right to vote unless and until they are physically present in India at the time of an Indian election. Please sign this petition – http://www.a2znri.org/nri_petition.php – if you feel that an Indian citizen, no matter where he lives, has the right to cast his vote. And please it on to other NRI’s or anyone who knows an NRI. I find it shocking that a country does not allow it’s non-residential citizens to cast a vote in an election. I just felt that it’s important to let this be known and make more people aware of the issue. Please pass it on to others.
Thank you Ratnakar.
Please keep this coming. My political education beginneth forthwith. Confess with head hung in tongue-in-cheek shame… to being a ignoramus politically.
Waking up now… to india… to my responsibility.
Thanks.
@Ratnakar, the Hindi and English tutor of RR Patil says, ‘Patil wasn’t even aware of what he uttered. If Patil would have conveyed his thoughts in Marathi he would not have made mess of it.’ WOW what a profound logic.
@Sourav, that option is termed 49-O in our constitution. It gives a voter authority ‘not-to-vote’ by opting for that option. But the sad thing is if there are more ‘49-Os’ than the majority there is no provision whatsoever mentioned anywhere in the constitution about the re-poll. Now, hows that….?? Isn’t that a flaw?
@ Oxy-13, I am willing to sponsor his tutor’s ticket to US. My aunt is a pyschiatrist there.
@ Ruchi-12, You are welcome,as they say better late than never. Well thanks to my study for Civil Services exam, i came to know this stuff, though i never made it in finally, LOL.
@ D
As much as we wish to have a direct attack on Pakistan, it is just not feasible. Because the minute we do it, Uncle Sam would come rushing in and arm twist us, so as not to upset their strategic balance. Right now Pakistan cares 2 hoots even if India were to show the proofs at the International Court of Justice. They will start to feel the pinch, only when US, UK ,India apply the pressure on them.
When India and US jointly begin the squeeze it would be really hard for the Pakistan Govt. Right now they are exhausting their “Get out of Jail Cards”, and they cant keep on fooling the world. So the Pakistani PR machinery might go in full overdrive, and their pals in New York Times, Guardian or one of the California Universities might write angtsy articles about how Pakistan is always a victim. But then White House or No 10, Downing Street, dont really care for that.
I got this thru forward but thought would share with my friends @ PFC as i found it really good. Please feel free to add your own points, I added #3 (See the last Line)
And life moves on… Raj Thackeray calls Sharad Pawar a buffoon… Raj Thackeray criticizes BJP Shiv Sena and life goes on…
The Home Minister of Maharashtra in a broadcast on National television says ‘Aise Bade Shehron main yeh incidents toh hotay rehtay hain’ and life goes on…
How many of us have goofed up in our jobs? Have you ever faced a situation at work when an employee in your team failed to meet targets month on month year on year?
What do you do with employees like this? Reprimand them? Sack consistent non performers?
The Home minister of our state had a job to do… He failed at it miserably… The Chief minister of our state had a job to do he failed at it too.
After the massacre of over a 100 innocent lives our PUBLIC SERVANTS refuse to accept that they failed miserably at their jobs… Despite failing us at every given occasion those people with critical jobs in GOVERNMENT OFFICES refuse to accept that they had an extremely bad year in terms of performance.
If you performed so badly at your job what do you think your appraisal rating would be?? Aren’t we the ones who are going to appraise our PUBLIC SERVANTS????
Aren’t we the ones who should make sure that these non performers are sacked?? How can it not make a difference to us if our PUBLIC SERVANTS are more interested in getting the Police force to raid rave parties and stop Bar Dancers than paying attention to serious Security threats to our city or looking at getting us basic amenities and good infrastructure???
Candle light marches are brilliant… as photo ops for the international press. Do you think RR Patil, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sonia Gandhi, Shivraj Patil, Sharad Pawar, Raj Thackeray and Bal Thackeray understand the sentiment behind candle light vigils and mass meetings at the Gateway of India?? Honestly… I don’t think so!!!!
As a group of professionals we need to make a collective noise. Let us take some concrete steps to ensure that our voice is heard.
Let us not file a single advance tax return this December and let us send a message across to our PUBLIC SERVANTS and our GOVERNMENT that unless we observe a significantly better performance, there will be no tax payment this March.
If you can get this across to a tax consultant or a lawyer who understands Taxation law, let us figure out whether there is a provision to not pay tax when the government machinery fails…. If you think this is a bad idea please tell me of a better one to make my voice heard…
Why get into the trouble of bombing Pakistan?? Let us get our own act together first!!! Let us spend all our defence budgets on securing our borders… Every single commodity that Pakistan imports to the world… Let us offer better quality at cheaper rates…. Ruin their economy with fair trade practices… Stop all trade and completely cut off diplomatic ties with that terrorist state… Do you think we’ll really need to bomb them??
We were to young to comprehend where the Spirit of Mumbai took us after 12th March 1993… What was the point of getting everything back to normal on 13th March 1993 if there was going to be a Nov 26, 2008???
I don’t know how long I am going to stay this angry??? Maybe in a couple of weeks life will just move on!!!
If you think this appeals to you even one bit please spread this to as many people as you can… If you think I am being pompous/stupid/moronic, please delete this the minute you read it and stop thinking about it completely… I assure you you won’t even have a single minute of bad luck…
But if you think there is even 1 thought in here which appeals to you and you know how we can execute it or there is a better idea which you can think of…for heavens sake lets do something about it!!!
Pls add your ideas and keep forwarding this mail to all not only Indians but to other Nationals also.
Idea:
1) Lets boycott all Pakistani Actors and Actresses who work for their income in Bollywood. Immediately I can think of TV show laughter Challenge where three Comedians are from Pakistan.Lets raise our voice (protest) that high that its heard by Sony TV and other channels so that they can do the needful.
2) Even the commutation between the two countries should be banned so as to put brakes on the infiltrators as they just have to send men to our country all the other accessories are easily made available to them by the insiders like D-company. A strong agitation shuould be led which can wake up the government to let them know its ENOUGH.
3) Lets all make a promise to ourselves that no matter how long and what it takes, we wont pay a single rupee as BRIBE to any of the departments of government, we are the ones who can change the system instead of sitting back and cursing the system, lets try to change it. It would be difficult but is not impossible.