India Today

Since politics is the architect of any nation, and the election system is the architect of the system of politics in any country, I would like to start by talking about the election system in our country. 

I'd call our election system as a festival of bribe, booze and biryani. I say 'festival' because the period of elections is a time of merry, not only for the politicians, but also for the people. For the politicians, it is the votes and the imminent powers and positions, and for the people, it is free food, drinks, household items and services; in other words, election time is a period of festivities where the majority of the Indian population ends up raping our motherland.  Wait, let's raise the first question. Is our country a home for dreamers and leaders or a breeding ground for beggars? Why do our tongues hang out on the sense of getting something free? Empowerment is a sinful deed in our country. 'The rich have to be rich, the poor have to be poor.' - this is the mantra on which our Indian politics is running. And yes, words like 'Change' and 'Development' are words of filth that are highly unacceptable in our nation. 

The second question. Are we a true democracy? We claim our nation to be one of the biggest democracies in the world; but according to me, if we call our country to be a democracy, it is nothing but hypocrisy.  We are a corrupt country showcasing ourselves as a great country under the blankets of democracy. We talk high about our past, of how great a nation India was and how our self-esteem and dignity were wiped out by the British invasion. But wait, what about now? Aren't we ourselves doing the same what the British did once upon a time? We are not allowed to select our leaders directly, then in what way is it appropriate to call ourselves a democracy? 

You might be knowing the recent arrest of two girls in Mumbai for their posts against the bandh in regard to the demise of  a Maharashtra political icon (I don't want to mention his name). If the demise of a politician has to be marked by a bandh, then I had say there are millions dying of hunger and poverty, what about them? You might say there is a difference between a politician and a common man, a difference of power and prestige, but I would like to remind you that it is the common man who has given that power, it is from the common man's sweat and blood the politician's prestige was born.

There is something called 'freedom of speech' that is present in our constitution. What does that mean? In our nation, if you speak something sensible, you will be behind the bars. But then, if you resort to rubbish talks and ridiculous acts, if your mouth dances to insane issues and meaningless comments, you will be hailed and made a member of the parliament (I guess that's how our parliament was formed). You speak the truth about a politician, about our government, and you will be stamped as a criminal and a traitor. Speaking the truth is condemned in this land of Mahatma Gandhi. Is 'truth' a taboo in India? 

Now, let me focus on the current Indian mentality. I am not the President or the PM to really analyse the current state of our nation, but still, I would like to share with you a few thoughts of mine that were born out of my experience. We want India to rock at the Olympics. At the time of Olympic games, it is a general habit of us to compare our country with those of Olympic-hero nations like China and USA. We criticise our country's performance and talk high about other countries' achievements. We say Indians don't have a sporting sense. But then, we don't want our children to get into sports. We brainwash them by discouraging them in every possible way, and show sports as something negative and unsuccessful. Let's come to cricket, which is like a religion in our country, or rather, a binding religion, a religion that unites all other religions. We want India to win every match it plays, to bring home every world cup it is a part of. If we lose a match, we begin to tag our players as useless and irresponsible. We criticise our players in such a way and talk as if losing a game is a heinous sin. But we never want our children to become cricketers. And the explanations we give are far from sensible; saying Cricket is full of politics and one needs a cricketing background to succeed in the game. We will come to cinema, something that is as common as brushing our teeth daily. Comparisons are made between Indian and Hollywood cinema. We accuse Indian Directors for artificiality and lack of quality. We taunt them by saying that all they know is item and duet songs, vulgar comedy and cheap stories. But hey, hold on, are we okay with our children becoming actors or filmmakers? The answer is a NO. We want to watch films, even try to watch pirated versions, but it is a big no when it comes to our children making films. Why so? Yeah, because films too have politics. And one needs a film background to succeed. Otherwise, you would end up on the roads. #whatrubbish!
Lastly, I want to focus on politics, which is like a backbone for a nation. Which can either make or break a nation. For us, politics is an ocean of filth and vermin. The government is corrupt, the leaders are inefficient, lawlessness is plaguing our country etc.; this is what we say. Most people feel politics to be a sin, as a word that shouldn't be uttered. We, as usual, compare our nation's politics with that of USA or Japan and throw tantrums at our own government. We criticize our political scene in such a way, as if we had been researching India's political history for decades. And when it comes to our children joining politics, our mouths begin to spit discouragement and negativity. Serving the nation should be done by everyone else, except us. We are an exception. We have so many problems and lots of responsibilities. And hence, politics is not a good choice.

The tag-line for all the situations similar to the above ones is advising our children to study well, get into a good job, and lead a safe, secured and settled life. 'Someone has to come and Change India. But that someone doesn't include me' - This is the mantra that is penetrating through our breaths. We say India has to develop, but we often forget that today's children of ours' are tomorrow's citizens of this country.

We got to remember this; we don't have the right to blame the system unless we are ready to do something for it. 

Honour killing in India : A shameful misfortune

India is a country of mixed cultures and heritages. Our country is an epitome of equality and bonds of love and affection. The adage ‘Unity in Diversity’ aptly suits our nation. But, the unfortunate thing is that all these things are now becoming matters of the past. As we are heading towards a future that is darkened with things like religion and caste, killing someone in the name of prestige is gaining precedence over love and affection towards others.

The frequency of honour killings has been on the rise in the northern regions of India, with the states of Punjab, Haryana and UP topping the list. These honour killings are directed towards women or girls, and are a result of marriages that happen without the permission of the family, or those that happen with the girl and boy belonging to two different caste groups or religions.
In contrast to this, honour killings are close to null in the south Indian states as well as north western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Statistics have given extremely painful and sad results. Over 1000 young people are killed in India in the name of honour killing every year. Punjab has got the credit of having the highest number of honour killings in the country, with 34 honour killings being reported in the state between 2008 and 2010.

KHAP PANCHAYATS AND HONOUR KILLING
Khap panchayats are self driven setups that have gained wicked popularity for having paved a way for honour killing. Boycotting families from villages that chose to allow their children’s marriages to their choice, supporting the families in honour killing are some of the naïve activities of these so called panchayats.
The unlawful laws of the Kap panchayats are imposed through social boycotts where the victims are killed or forced to commit suicide. All these inhumane activities are done in the name of brotherhood and honour. Love marriages are considered taboo in these areas, which is highly unfortunate.

FEW EXAMPLES OF INHUMANITY
In the town of Jhajjar in Haryana, a father allegedly strangled his 21 year old daughter to death just for the trivial reason that she was in love with a guy.
In Uttar Pradesh, a youth who was opposed to his sister’s love beheaded her and threw her head in her lover’s house. This shows how inhumane and devilish one can become when their minds are possessed with spirits like religion and caste.
In yet another brutal act of tyranny, a man in Rajasthan had beheaded her daughter with a sword. The killer father was found roaming on the streets holding the severed head of his daughter.

WHERE ARE WE HEADING?
65 years of independence, development in the fields of science, technology, business, films and sports, etc. and yet, there are these dumb practices that threaten to push our nation backward to a few million years. Our nation’s dignity is being poisoned by religion and caste differences. People, who seem to be modern and broad minded, aren’t really so. Though honour killings are not prevalent in cities and metros, still love marriages are looked down. People tend to allow religion and caste to dominate the very meaning of love, which is a universal language. This mindless practice is not confined to a particular class. Both the educated and the uneducated, the rich and the poor, have this habit of honour killing in practice.

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
The laws are there. The rules are there. But all those aren’t stopping the people from becoming merciless killers. Their fanaticism for religion and caste makes them heartless tyrants, and they don’t care for any punishment that they are going to get.  What needs to be done is not to look at the punishment side, as that is not going to shake the criminals in any way. The best way to tackle this religious epidemic is to create awareness amongst the people, and educate them; as the ones who are into this barbaric act are the villagers and the uneducated. All these people are living in the mask of insanity; insanity born out of religion and caste. And only proper awareness and education can bring about a change for the better.

The Hunger Games of India

'The rich gets richer, and the poor gets poorer.' Well, this is not just the dialogue that escaped Rajnikanth's mouth in the film Sivaji, but more importantly, the very line that is now dictating the fate of our nation.

The recent report by the World Bank on Global Hunger shows that India ranks 65 in a total of 79 countries that have been assessed by the Global Hunger Index (GHI). What is even more worse is that according to the latest data on child under-nutrition, India ranks second from last on child-malnutrition in a list of 129 countries. Our economy is growing year by year, but what is the use of an economic boom when the very problems of our nation, which are degrading our development, only seem to worsen? Neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Nepal, which were once undergoing the same fate as ours, have now boomed and are consistently taking steps to eradicate this monster-epidemic of child hunger and malnutrition. There is much to learn from other countries, which, though small or are much behind us in terms of economy, are taking mammoth steps to push of these issues from the national domain. For example, Sri Lanka, whose national scene was blurred with civil wars etc., has achieved impressively high rates of literacy and life expectancy through various people-welfare policies, and enormous investments in health and education. Bangladesh, which is most often looked as a 'miniature' country by us, has succeeded in overtaking us in different social factors, like reduction in child malnutrition and child mortality. That point that deserves much attention is that these changes were possible in these countries only because of the responsible intervention of the states as well as the national governments. I don't know if they are democratic countries, but all I know is that, there, people are the first priority of the government. And yeah, that's what democracy really means.

I have no idea about the percentages of people below the poverty line, or the statistics regarding child hunger  or female malnutrition, and neither do I have the reports of the richest and the poorest in our country. I can say that we have aversion to learning, neither from our very own past, which was a beautiful painting of freedom and values by our national leaders, nor from other countries, which despite of being 'whatever' once upon a time, are now forging ahead while we keep gazing at them in meaningless amazement.

What's the use of a so called economic or IT boom, what's the use of different laws or reforms being brought by our government, what's the use of our nation making breakthroughs in the field of sports or medicine or technology or entertainment, when the very people of our nation are starving and rotting to death. 

Imprisoned for Truth

Do you have the habit of speaking the truth? Does the rampant growth of corruption in our country boil your blood? Do you have this gut-wrenching feeling in you to kick our dirty leaders out of the nation? You want a clean India? Is it like you don't give a damn to pin point the corrupt in the public? If you give a 'yes' to all the above questions, then yes, one day you might end up in jail.

Our system was designed in a way that paves way for development, but it is now being changed into something that punishes the ones who go for development. We are born in the land of great leaders and freedom fighters, the men who are one of the greatest human beings on earth, and whose names our country pronounces with pride. But unfortunately, following those 'men of miracle' today, would give you nothing but a cemented floor to sit on and rusted iron bars to count. Yes, you would be imprisoned.

This blog is in regard to the recent arrest of Aseem Trivedi, the Kanpur based cartoonist who was held for having portraying our leaders in their true colours, that is, as corrupt. If showing the leaders as what they are is a crime in the eyes of the government, then what does raping the nation mean? Our government has one of the biggest collections of thieves in the world; thieves who are completely secured within the walls of a term called 'democracy'.

What is democracy? Is it doing something for the people, or at the cost of the people? We have a number of rights listed in our constitution, termed as 'fundamental rights', which means that they belong to each and every being of this country, irrespective of their race or creed or religion or sex. Then why is it that when a man from the common populace comes out with something, and that which is absolutely true, does our government portray him as a traitor? Who is a traitor; the ones who ravage the country or the ones who point the people who do so? Do our leaders deserve what they enjoy today? Do they deserve the power and the votes? Do they deserve respect or security? And above all, do they deserve to be alive? 

Child Care Centres : Homes of perpetual hell

If there is something that is deeply traumatizing and hurting, something that is unpardonable and indigestible, then the first in the list comes Child Abuse. And when this abuse is sexual, the repercussions have to be extreme and the guilty should undoubtedly be hanged.

The inside story

The number of child care homes and institutions is on the rise, and so are the cases of sexual abuse. And what is more pathetic is, the cases that haven’t come into the limelight largely outnumber the ones that have come under the police scanner. According to the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, there are over 640 homes across the country (child care centres and institutions) registered under the Juvenile Justice Act 2000. And over 30,000 children live in such homes. But when it comes to the number of homes unregistered under the act, the data and information is null.

Now let’s take a brief look at what actually is happening in most of the CCIs (Child Care Institutions).

The girl children are forced to strip off their clothes. There was forced abortion happening by inserting objects in their private parts. Every inmate, irrespective of their age and gender, were forced to consume liquor every night. The kids are forced to watch porn and the so called ‘caretakers’ use foul language at them.

This is just the brief, which itself is sickening. The activities and atrocities that haven’t come under the scanner are many more, and what is even more painful is the fact that a few cops are also involved in this abuse and torture towards children.

How the inside incidents spill out

The public comes to know of all such incidents only when an insider manages an ingenious escape and reports to someone, or when a rare and exceptional event exposes the sex tyrants. It has come out through many experts that for every reported case of sexual assault in a CCI, there are ten unreported cases.

The JJ Act, 2000, demands regular inspections by the inspection committee, monthly meetings of the management committees and quarterly inspections by the Child Welfare Committee members. When a home is not registered under the JJ Act, it gets the chance of escaping all this scrutiny. There are cases when the members of the inspection committee are bribed by the caretakers of CCIs upon accidental exposure of the inside activities, and the result is the innocent children losing their very chance of freedom from the hellholes of sexual abuse.

Some appalling facts

A huge number of children in our country go missing every year. Some are kidnapped, some are sold by their families in return for money, and some are lured for the promise of a better life. The following are the statistics provided by CRY (Child Rights and You)

-          About 9,000 children go missing in India every year.

-         Over 5 lakh children are forcefully pushed into sex trade every year.

-         Approximately 2 million commercial sex workers are between the ages of 5 and 15 years, and over 3.3  million are between the ages of 15 and 18.

-         40 percent of the children’s population in our country is into commercial sex working; and 80 percent of these children are found in the five metros – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai.

-          71 percent of these children are illiterate, that is, they are not aware of what is being done to them.

We got to think

Today’s children are the products of tomorrow’s India, but when the lives of these children are sailing on the waters of sexual abuse, we can anticipate our nation walking towards darkness. The children who have escaped from these homes of horror had put it that their lives had been extremely painful and agonizing, not just mentally but also physically. In most cases, they don’t have a chance to even interact with the staff of the CCIs. They are beaten badly in the name of inculcating discipline, insulted and molested, abused verbally, physically and sexually. Young girls are gang-raped in such homes, again and again; they are tormented and tortured to an extent where they heart-fully feel death is a better option.

Our government had produced a bill (Prevention of Sexual Offences Against Children) in 2011, but there have also been reports stating that the present legislation is not sufficient to curb child sexual abuse. We do not know how far the government is serious regarding this issue. We do not know if the government, in the first place, has bothered to bother about this matter. All we got to know is, we just can’t rely or wait for our government. To make things change, we got to move. 

The CoalGate : Our nation's shot to shame

‘The Coal-gate scam’ clearly shows our nation’s shot to shame. It has already been termed as the mother of all scams, as the black money involved here has swallowed all the other previous scams.

What has happened actually?

The CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General, an authority established by the Govt. of India, who audits all the receipts and expenditures by the central government as well as the state governments) of India, has accused the Government of India for illegally and irregularly providing our nation’s coal deposits to private and state run entities instead of auctioning them in the public. And this has resulted a loss of a whopping 1,86,000 crore rupees to our national treasury in the period 2004 – 2009. There have been estimates released by the media that the actual loss was 10,60,000 crore rupees.  And what is more sickening is, in that period of five years, all the major coal dealings in the country went right under the nose of our Prime Minister.

What is actually the problem? What is happening in the central level?

Our prime minister is inefficient. He has been the play-toy in the hands of the UPA members, especially in the hands of Sonia Gandhi. There have been a number of scams being uprooted in the past couple of years, and all our government says is that it condemns and strict action would be taken. And then, the same routine which our so called leaders follow – eat the nation’s money and pride, rip off its reputation and rape it.

It has been in the news that in this five year period (2004-2009), 142 coal fields were illegally allotted to the private and state run entities, instead of being auctioned. Yes, they are ‘Coal Fields’. One of the richest natural resources of our nation; which, now has landed in the hands of the corrupt leaders.

Earlier this year, our Prime Minister had made a public statement that he would hang his life if found guilty in the Coal Scandal. But reports say, that the coal scam had come out in such a way, that it indirectly benefits the PM himself, and at the same time keeps him floating on safe waters; i.e, he won’t be proved guilty, but he would be enjoying the scam share. The 75 year old crusader, Anna Hazare too has been stressing on the same words.

It has been very much evident that our leaders never encourage development or focus on issues like eradicating corruption, which has been tearing off the dignity of our nation. Our leaders don’t want a clean government or a clean nation. In their eyes, social activists and crusaders are evil minds. They have been so lost in the luxury of money and power, that they don’t bother to even ravage our nation and kill its honour.

 The political reaction

The Coal-gate had given BJP a chance for a straight hit onto the Prime Minister. The party had stalled both the houses of Parliament this morning and forced an adjournment. The BJP leaders had strongly put that they are least caring about the PM’s statement on the scandal, and want him to quit.

How is the common man affected?

Coal mines are the gold mines of our nation. Coal amounts to 56 percent of electricity production in our country. In the December of 2011, over 300 million Indian citizens lacked access to electricity. To add to the bitterness, over one third of our country’s rural population sunk in blackouts, and so did 6 percent of the urban populace. All this had badly disturbed irrigation and the manufacturing processed across the length and breadth of the country. What is more painful is, despite our country being the fourth largest energy consumer after USA, China and Russia, it presently suffers from acute shortage of electricity generation. The IEA (International Energy Agency) had drawn out estimates and stated that India needs an investment of around $135 billion in order to provide 24/7 power supply to its entire population of 1.2 billion. Yes, $135 billion, still less than the loss acquired because of the Coal scam.

Let’s question ourselves once. Shouldn’t these leaders be kicked out of our nation?

The road to a Political Marvel

And finally, the time has come for Indian Politics to change. The time has come for the system of filth and vermin, of delayed justice and atrocities, of broken laws and failed ideals, to get cleansed in the sea of CHANGE. The thought of Anna and team joining politics itself has created fear in the minds and hearts of the corrupt and the unlawful. And I, as a man who desires a 'developed' India, am fully ready to support the 75 year old crusader. 

The 16 month long fight has ultimately inspired a thought; a thought that would lay a new road in the history of our country's being, the road to a political marvel. This sixteen month long journey has been everything but smooth for Anna and his team. There had been baseless rumours and senseless remarks; there had been times of struggle and humiliation, but the team has withstood everything and stayed firm and determined. Hats off to their tenacity. And hats off to all of us who had supported Anna all the way. 

Change is not easy. It doesn't require something that is smooth or effortless, but rough and painful. Anna and his battlers have been epitomes of Change, and let's promise ourselves that we would pour in our heart and soul and render support to these fighters for change. 

Not just the initiators of change, but also its supporters can make marvels happen!

Go Anna Go!

NO to sports, but YES to medals

Four years ago, we won a medal at the olymipcs, and the nation celebrated. Now, we have three in the medal tally, and we are celebrating.

What I want to bring out here is, what is so big in winning just a few medals? A person winning just one olympic medal is given rave publicity across the nation, but has that strengthened our nation's sport-stamina in any way? There are countries where people who had won tens of medals are just treated normally; but why is it that in our country alone, a single medal is given that much of importance?

An instance from this year's olympics happening in London says that when asked what was the number of medals they aimed to win, the king-nations of olympics like China and USA gave big numbers, while what we had dreamt of was one gold. Yes, just one Gold. That was all we had dreamt of. We talk about aiming big and dreaming big. We always share such quotes and messages; but why don't we actually implement them? 

And yes, there is one more thing which I would like to talk about. We never want our children to become sportspersons, but we want our nation to win medals and matches. We criticize our government and our nation in regard to the shameful performances in sports, and at the same time never encourage our children to  pursue a career in sports.  All we want is marks and grades, and then we want our nation to rock at the olympics! 

We watch cricket matches, and tend to throw tantrums at our players if they don't perform well. We declare that India can never be good at football and olympics. And then, we out and out refuse to support our children when they show interest in sports. Why is it that we are so badly addicted to words like 'education' and 'jobs'? When is it that we understand that education has got nothing to do with success? 

One thing is certain; unless sports are encouraged from ground level, unless there is equality between the field of education and sports, unless the stupid notion that education fetches more success is eliminated from our minds, we can never go big in the field of sports.

Inactive Government, Hyperactive People

When Akhilesh Yadav took charge as the new CM of UP and flushed the state cabinet with rowdies and goondas, little did we know how the state of the state would turn out to be subsequently. But now, after the Baghpat region issue, where senseless laws were levied on women, there is something more from the same village that is creating turmoil across the nation.

The rules laid on the women were simply insane and awful, and what was more horrible was the way the villagers reacted to the policemen who had come to investigate the matter. The policemen had taken two panchayat members into custody, and then had to face an alarming and brutal attack from the villagers including their motorcycles being set on fire, after which the villages fled away upon freeing the arrested panchayat members.

Now, lets try to raise a few questions. Where do the terrorists and talibans come from? Even in the modern era, when the world is opening up to new horizons of development, why are there still such narrow minded people? Why do we tend to be hyperactive with irrelevant issues and completely inactive with serious issues? Why are parents afraid to give freedom to their children, or rather, why aren't the children brought up in a way where the freedom they get is not misused? Why are we not taught about the importance and sweetness of love in our schools? Why do the school and university application forms still have religion and caste columns? And above all, why are we still developing?

For all the questions above, most of us point our fingers at the government and wash down our complaints over it. We blame the government for everything. We complain, and the worst part is we are not willing to take action and clean the messed up and muddy government. Our government is anyway inactive, and it's of absolutely no use if we wait for it to take steps.

The solution lies within us; to WAKE UP and GO ACTIVE.

Sometimes, Old is NOT Gold

64 years of independence, and still a girl doesn't have the freedom to choose her better half.
64 years of independence, and still religion and caste are more important than humanity.
64 years of independence, and we are still developing.

Is love a sin? Is choosing our better half no less than an unpardonable crime? Are we really worth to enjoy the freedom our leaders have given us? And above all, in the first place, do we really have the real freedom?

Religion and caste have been so respected and regarded in our country, that we are unknowingly separating ourselves from the wonderful bonds of love. Now, let me come to the actual point. There is this village in UP that has got the 'determination' to still cling onto the old and mindless tradition. Here, women under 40 are not allowed to marry the man they love, or to use mobile phones, or to go alone to the market. And yes, there is something more; they can't step out of their houses without their heads being covered.

The Panchayat has issued an order that anyone resorting to love marriage or anyone found helping them will be boycotted by the community. And the justification they give is far far away from being sensible.

The Panchayat blames the booming telecom industry in our country for the sharp increase in eve-teasing and elopement. The issues which can be curbed through strict monitoring and rules now seem to come in the way of development.

The question is, instead of catching and punishing the wrongdoers, why do these people bring out senseless laws and lay limitations on women? Why do they still cling on to the old culture and tradition, which in no way seem to be sensible or beneficial to the common people? Today, it is just one village. But as more and more tomorrows keep coming, this 'blind love for religion and going blind for real love' disease will sweep across the entire nation.

Well, the solution for this? Love marriages. I would like to end this article by putting forward that only when there is a rise in love marriages, love that doesn't see religion or culture or caste or nationality, only then people will come together. Only then we can break free from the rusted chains of religion and the so called tradition, and taste the real freedom; the freedom for which our leaders have fought their sweat and blood; the freedom to love and be loved.

We got to remember that, sometimes, Old is NOT Gold.

Fall in love, and out of mindless tradition. 

Naked Laws, Naked Morals

Mulgaon Village, Maharashtra


This is not the first time for such a shameless and immoral incident to happen in our country. In the name of religion, caste and other insane things that divide humanity, for the past many decades, we have been becoming the reasons for such unprincipled acts.


If we turn back the pages of our history, we can find many instances that support the above statement.  A married couple burnt to death by their own kith and kin in the name of 'honour' killing, for the mere reason that they belonged to two different communities; a woman paraded naked in the public with her eyes gouged out for the fact that she had refused to accept the religious differences in a village; a man beaten to death by the mob and a police officer himself, just because he had stolen food out of starvation and hunger.


And recently, we had successfully and immodestly added one more occurrence to the list. 'A 42 year old Dalit woman, beaten, stripped and paraded by five people belonging to an upper caste community just for the sole reason that her son had eloped with their girl. And when the miserable lady had approached the police, all she gets is a lame comment that such incidents are common in the area.'


Sometimes we got to question ourselves, if animals are better than us; for they kill either for food or self defense, and neither in the name of religion, nor in the name of caste divisions.