16/11/14

Kiss in the time of Moral policing


        I have seen public stand as mute spectators when people fight or quarrel (as if they thoroughly enjoy the act), but when two people kiss or show any kind of affection, we cannot stand it. I never could understand this cynical attitude of Indian society. I feel it is not merely intolerance towards any display of affection in public, this is just a pathetic and insensitive attitude of our society.Are we a society which,  despise love? Or are we a jealous society that cannot stand others happiness? There is no dearth for hate campaigns like haux ‘love jihad’(for inter-religious marriages/love affairs) by right wing groups to discourage a relation between Hindu girls and Muslim boys.

       I am concerned about the moral policing, certain people with the backing of religious fanatics think that they are the self appointed guardians of ‘Indian culture and morality’. I do not have any idea what those ‘jeans-clad’ youth did mean by Indian culture? Our culture is not only Vedas and Upanishads,but  also oppression of women and lower caste people, practice of untouchability etc.We had a culture where women are forced to jump into the pyre of men, lower caste people were treated as insects, women  had to fight for the right to even cover their breast around 150 years. All this has changed, and change is part of any society or culture. 

       Again those ‘guardians’ of Indian culture, do not have any shame to threaten the girls who participate in the ‘Kiss of Love’ campaign with rape and other obscene activities. Is that also part of Indian culture? I wonder. What is saddening is that our whole system is  sort of conditioned to believe that love or kiss is ‘immoral’, even the Universities that are supposed to enlighten the students act like a bunch cowards.What kind of generation these institutions produce?

        There is a clear gender discrimination in moral policing as well. Indians tend to believe that morality is only for women.  Unfortunately moral policing could be an act of jealous men  who couldn’t find a friend from opposite sex, or it could be an outward expression of their sexual  frustration, whatever it is , it reflects the hypocrisy of a society where rape and all forms of exploitation of women is rampant.

  I have experienced enough, the jealousy of men  in India and Kerala(where the kiss of love campaign had begun after Hindu rights group vandalized a café) despite her high education and human development index is perhaps one of the most regressive societies in India. Perhaps an ideal place to begin a campaign like ‘kiss of love.’

29/10/14

Who is Kailash Satyarti

      Who is Kailash Satyarti? I was wondering while reading news about him being awarded the  Nobel  Price for Peace 2014. Most of my compatriots including journalists of national dailies did not have any idea of this man who devoted much of his life for children’s rights even braving bullets.We had to wait for Nobel peace price to know about him.Later I came to know that he was an Engineer who gave up job to work for child’s right and though, born as Brahmin (priestly class), he doesn’t believe in caste system thus, replaced his surname as Satyart ie seeker of truth.His humanitarian activities transcend the limitations of boarders, and reach out to children who have been robbed off their childhood.He begun his child rights  activities as early as 1981 even though UN convention for child rights had been born only  on 1989.

      I felt shame on my ignorance though I am a self confessed news junky (an addiction I am trying to get rid off) I recall an experience former President Mr. Abdul Kalam had in a school few years back, little children were at a loss when he had spoken about Gandhiji, after much explanation they figured out that  Kalam was speaking about ‘that old man having no teeth.’ ; But the kids were aware of each details about Sharukh Khan(Bollywood actor). How do they even know?Satyarti lives in Delhi where most of the national medias are located, but  his human rights activities are neither noticed nor reported.Media devote precious time and space to politicians and celebrities, in the guise of ‘human interest’ stories.Media argues that people get what they want (or deserve?), I find it a silly argument just for the sake of it, if that is the case why it is called pillar of democracy? Why not yellow journalism?

           Thousands of children are trafficked in India to work for pittance in mines,fire work factories  and restaurants/homes. But the plight of those children, or other marginalized people is not ‘news worthy’ for the media, they ignore those who try to improve the lives of those unfortunate kids as well.  Same is the case with environment, developmental news etc, media share a little space for such news.
I might be a minority, and minorities are hardly heard, majority may want to read trivia, at the same time it is natural that, when they are constantly feed on silly stuff, they crave for more of it. Media can have positive influence on society if they want, instead they chase those ‘sexy midriff and cleavage’, to ‘sex up’ eyeing a huge market.


         Authorities are not different either, government give out prestigious civilian awards as Padmasree, Padma vibhushan etc to most of the bollywood actors (certain regional language actors too)--many times I do not know why and for what-but Satyarti  has never been hounoured by any awards. Recently Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has been honoured with the Bharat Ratna’(Diamond of India)the  highest civilian award in the country, but I think people like Satyarti is the real Bharat Ratna.

Himalayan task of Cleaning India

    Prime minister Narendra Modi’s cleanliness drive is laudable, though he had chosen he cleanest part of Delhi to broom after  littering it for him to ‘clean’, so that I have reason to doubt the sincerity of the same. Had he been serious, he would have chosen the dirtiest part of Delhi(there is no dearth of it in the city)to initiate his cleanliness drive. Having said that, I think this is the first time a Prime minister voiced the need for cleaning our country. But how we are going to make India a filth free country? Indians are of the habit of cleaning their home and throwing the garbage on the street/road or any place that do not belong to “them.” We are used to live in a cocoon of our home among a heap of filth just outside or walk through dirty paths, as if it does not exist at all. I remember a French photo journalist asked me once the reason of our ‘indifference’ to the filth around us, I wish I would know the answer.Perhaps we are  a selfish race,so that nothing(including environment) beyond our immediate family do concern us or we are too passive to do something about it. Anyways, I feel it is not easy to get rid of the ‘culture’ that we are grown up with. We do not educate our kids in home/schools about the importance of cleanliness or hardly have any effort to make them aware the necessity of taking care of environment

  So proper awareness drive with penalty to those litter the public places is important as a baby step towards a clean India. I feel Indians are generally not self- disciplined, we need someone to impose strict measures on us (just to have a look at our railway stations or bus stations would enlighten one about this), so penalty is essential to make cleanliness mission a success.



22/05/14

Politics of Media

  ‘’Victory has many fathers, but failure is an orphan’’ the quote made famous by John F Kennedy is very relevant today after Modi’s spectacular win.Modi’s ascend to the top post is significant especially after 10 years of scam-affected  regime of Congress lead UPA. But I almost felt sorry for those senior journalists who were ‘crawling’ (if I borrow the words of famous journalist Vinod Mehta) in front of BJP leaders in a bid to please them. Incredible Medias (read paid Medias) of Incredible India. Today business and political interest supersedes the ethics of journalism, and they behave as if the mouth piece of winning side.
Now a small Infant party like AAP doesn’t have the money or power to make them crawl before them, so that everything they do is mocked at and termed as drama. I just copy paste here a witness account during the Tihar jail dharna of AAP to show how the biased media functions.

      ‘'I am not an AAP activist but support them. Yesterday I too went
outside Tihar to express solidarity.AAP supporters were on the
pavement & absolutely peaceful and there was no disruption of traffic.
After an hour police asked us to cross the road & congregate on the
other side, following their orders we were quickly crossing the road,
the police stopped the traffic( for not more than 5 minutes as AAP
workers told us to cross quickly) and the media rushed to cover that
traffic had been disrupted. Sad! and then police started lathi
charging AAP for disrupting traffic.A bus came and AAP
workers/supporters were pushed into it .Later at home I came to know
that they were booked under sec 144 but it was not announced there
that sec 144 had been imposed. Hope you and me would not have to fight
this impossible system for a personal loss!’’
 
   I feel disappointed reading news today. Perhaps going by this standard of Medias Gandhiji too was performing ‘drama’ against British Raj to get sympathy. Arvind Kejriwal refused to pay the bail bond on moral ground that he is not a criminal as he did in the previous occasions as well, but perhaps due to the ‘Modi effect’ he has been arrested. Nobody seemed to have any issues when Kejriwal had been called Pak Agent and other certain derogatory names, but when a corrupt BJP leader Gadkari was termed as ‘corrupt’ all our system joined hands to put a honest man in prison.It is funny that BJP demands evidence of the corruption charges against Gadkari when all their election campaign was concentrated on the corruption charges against Congress leaders. Incredible India.It is unfortunate that a law cannot be questioned if find unjust. During freedom struggle Gandhiji was asked to ‘obey’ the law, to which he said, all laws were not just. Strange that Indian Penal Code written by British in another century cannot also be questioned. 


   All media is blind about this injustice, and as there is no opposition in parliament or none dare to criticize Modi and BJP, I think the future of Indian media is pretty bleak. It is a disturbing development.

28/03/14

Side effects of 'Modi'fication

    
       Hero-starving Indians have a  new hero in Prime Ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi. He is hailed as if  a God and is prescribed as a panacea for all the disease of India. I think Bhratiya Janata Party must be renamed as Modi Janata Party considering the enthusiasm of his bhakts(devotees) and the carefully created aura surrounding him. Modi bhakt are working tirelessly on online forums to elevate his image and ridicule/threaten anyone who even criticize him slightly. I am not surprised as Modi himself is resorted to personal attacks and use abusive languages and lies to silence opponents instead of addressing issues or having a meaningful debate.

 Another disturbing trend among this online soldiers of Modi is constant Minority community bashing, and rooting for extreme 'patriotism' even at the cost of humanity. Those who oppose Modi is termed as traitors,Pakistan-agents etc and minorities have to prove their 'patriotism' as Hindus(many who endorse Modi) consider themselves as patriotic by birth. This mindless patriotic feeling just reminds me the words  of Tagore that 'Why the world has been broken up into narrow domestic walls?' Extreme nationalism is as dangerous as extreme religionism.


     I am not for or against Modi and do not have much idea of  his so called ‘development’ in Gujarat. But I remember once a friend sarcastically  pointed out about Gujarat development, ‘If you want to see the development in Gujarat, look out from the train while it passing through Surat, you could see girls waiting for the train to pass to attend the call of nature’.Gujaratis are into business and that state is  always prosperous comparing to other large Indian states, of course business people like Ambani and Adani are more benefitted by his regime than common people. Improving infra structure without improving the lives of the people cannot be called a real development, though I credit him for the good things that he had done. Smaller states like Kerala,Goa etc are ahead of Gujarat when it comes to the standard of living of the poor.

     The things that work in favour of  Modi is that he could market himself as a strong leader when India  is steeped in corruption, Inflation and price rise, besides  his Hindutva image definitely adds momentum where over 80%  of population are Hindus. Many Hindus do not care about  whether he is involved or not in the Gujarat riots, in fact some Hindu’s even support the riot in their personal conversation saying that ‘it was necessary’ to ‘teach a lesson’ to Muslims. Whenever I tried to reason with them about the difference between some religious fanatics’ crime and the crime perpetrated by the state, which is supposed to protect its citizens, on certain community, it fell on deaf ears.

Modi is considered an efficient administrator, but I wonder why he couldn't stop Gujarat riot If he is that efficient. Let us assume that he was not involved in the riot, but what stops him asking apology to those who are affected by this worst communal riot, as the Chief minister , it was his responsibility to protect its citizens.

      Though people think that  Modi would ‘save’ India, I have not heard from him how he is going to fight inflation, price rise,corruption etc.BJP itself has many corrupt and criminal candidates contesting in the election. Besides what is his stand on the gas price rise recommendation that is to benefit Mukesh Ambani. It was during one press conference former petroleum minister of India said that  neither himself nor the press can do anything even though they all knew that it is Mukesh Ambani who controls the Government’.It is a known fact that Ambani changes the Petrolum Minister who does not listen to him. I do not think Modi can do anything about this as Congress and BJP are the two aspects of the same coin.


     If Modi is a good administrator,he would not try to intimidate a political rival by violence as it happened during the road show of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal in Gujarat, it shows his intolerance towards criticism. It was one Gujarati(Mahatma Gandhi) who kindled the imagination of Indians during freedom struggle with his selfless karma, now it is another Gujarati  who is on his way to be a mass leader, unfortunately they are a poles apart.