Untitled

नेताओं से आशा है की बिल पास करेंगे

कभी तो लोग रिश्वत लेने से डरेंगे

कब तक लोग बाबुओं से लड़ेंगे

कब हमारे बिग्ढ़े काम बनेंगे

कब तक ढूंढते रहेंगे लोग कोई सिफारिश

कब ख़तम होगी घूस की यह बारीश

और नहीं सही जाती यह खालिश

अब यही है हमारी छोटी सी गुजारिश

क्या फरक पढता है; RSS हो या अन्ना

यह काम तो तुम्हे अब है करना
अपने पुराने कर्मों से तुम मत डरना

कभी तो तुम्हे भी अपना क़र्ज़ है भरना

Damned If You Do; Damned If You Don't

Tariq Ahmad Bhat; a local shopkeeper assaulted on December 3rd died a couple of days back; succumbing to injuries incurred during yet another protest in Kashmir. He was not attacked by the cops, the army, or by  terrorists; but by protesters who had called for a bandh. That is not even really the point here; but it definitely does highlight the dilemma an average Kashmiri lives with.

Since the Kashmir issue has become...well an issue ; it has been mostly treated as a political problem. Its has either been viewed as either a Govt. of India v/s the separatists/terrorists or azadi or pro-India/Pak concern. With the governments of two very influential (nuisance value in case of Pak) states directly involved in the region; the Kashmiri people have more often than not seen their concerns being put on the back-burner. And as long as these two countries continue to behave like egoistic school bullies; sadly the situation will continue to remain the same. With highly polarised positions assumed by the two countries it has not been easy for the people of the state to not align themselves with one or the other. It is in such atmosphere that an average citizen of the state finds her/himself in a dilemma. Imagine the plight of the person who just does not want to assume any position. Contrary to what most political people might quickly term as being passive or ignorant behavior I believe it requires much more courage not to go along with any position.

Tariq Ahmad Bhat on December the 3rd made a choice that cost him his life. He chose to live like a normal person, to open his shop, to make money and that in the eyes of the protesters was nothing short of treason. Tariq was hit with cricket bats and the stones he refused to pick up.

It does not matter what stands everyone involved has assumed, it does not matter what happened in the past, it does not matter who the land belongs to. If we cannot guarantee the right to live, the right to earn one's livelihood; everyone is doing something wrong.

100 Days...And Counting

While the whole country has been distracted with one thing or the other, Manipur has been reeling under the affect of the indifference of the central government and the bullying tactics of influential regional goondas. The north-eastern states seem to be caught in a time warp, struggling to shake off their past legacies. In this day and age of advanced communications and other technological improvements it is a shame that the adage "out of sight; out of mind' still applies to the region.

The lack of any meaningful communication from our government is not only baffling but absolutely inexcusable. The media too did not pick this story until the landmark 100 day milestone was attained. Sachin's 100 landmark apparently is much more important. People in the 'mainland' are oblivious to the going-ons in the north-east; we cannot even begin to understand the gravity of the situation over there. Imagine living in Delhi, Bombay wherever, for more than 3 months, without regular fuel supply, without access to cooking gas and other essentials. War time supplies are less regulated! And here is a state, within our boundaries, alienated from the rest of the nation.

That we have always ignored the seven sisters is not a secret, but when we sit idly by, watching a whole state being cut off from the rest of the country, it reflects our lack of respect for human life. The fact that we grade human life in this country according religion, location, caste etc etc is being manifested by the blockade in Manipur. Government after government at the center; has indulged in a systematic isolation of the people living in the north-east. Why then does it come as a surprise to many, that there are so many separatist movements in the region? Why wouldn't they want to leave?

For long now our political parties have been satisfied with conducting periodic elections and not much else. Their idea of integration has been limited to appointing district collectors and other useless bevy of government officials. As democracy has worked (or not) in the rest of the country, the north-eastern states have also witnessed corrupt and greedy leaders come to power. The constant struggle for power has provided ample room for separatists to claim legitimacy. The Government of India acts only when a few bombs go off and there are noises made regarding autonomy or independence. What it wishes to do by retaining these people, other than having to avoid reprinting a large number of maps is beyond me. There is a lack of will to integrate people from the region.

There might be racist undertones in the way government representatives operate in the region but I believe it is the lack of number which guides the govt's out of sight out of mind outlook. I suggest we double the number of MPs coming from the north-east, just so that they count for more. It has been a long, bloody path for the region and its people. They deserve much better. If we don't even want to try, if we don't even care, then why resist their wish to lead their lives on their own terms. Forget the politics, the history; they are human beings, citizens of this country. Surely they deserve much better?

What A Fucking Shame

Eleven years after the Delhi Police broke the match-fixing scandal, three players have been jailed for a more modern nano version of the same. It is a fucking shame that the ICC, the police, the various boards let things get so bad; that these things still happen. And thank god for the British media and the justice system, else god knows what else might have continued to happen. But I will come to that later.

The sheer stupidity, and that is all it took, displayed the by the three idiots is astounding. All the convicted players were phenomenal practitioners of the game. Asif and Amer were being touted as potential leading bowlers of the future. Salman Butt was probably on his way to become one of Pakistan’s best opening batsmen. It was their stupidity which led them on the path of greed.

I must admit that I initially had mixed feelings when the verdict came out. I genuinely felt bad for the three idiots, being imprisoned for what is essentially cheating. But that did not last long. The way these people have let down their country, their sport, the fraternity of fans worldwide, quickly made me angry again. This is colossal. For any cricket fan, for any sports’ fan; with a conscience.

Cheating it was. But sadly for them it was also bloody illegal. It is about time that the law catches up with sportspersons too. They are as much a part of society as the people who pay to watch them. There have been some sympathetic noises being made about Salman Butt having a son and Mohammed Amer being an 18 year old village boy. Bullshit. While it is easy to sympathize, it requires courage to do the right thing. They have only themselves to blame.

The only reason why this case has proceeded to trial and punishment is because it was exposed outside of the sub-continent. Compare the proceedings in UK with what has happened in India since 2000. One of the banned players is a Member of Parliament, another one is a celebrated commentator with equally shady fixers posing as news people at NDTV and the others; well they have moved on, helped along the way with their ill-gotten wealth. When the richest board in the world is run by someone like Pawar there is much more that goes on than your harmless hood-hood-wink-wink act. There is no doubt in my mind that there was a deliberate effort to not convict Indian players suspected of fixing matches. What the fuck is a ban? Is it not admitting that the players were guilty and if so why aren’t their asses in jail? Why does Azhar get to escape prison and get elected to the highest representative public body in the country? Why does a leading news channel have a former suspect on its expert panel?

These questions have only one answer. Because we do it too. Atleast we have in the past. We are just too strong an entity to let things affect us like normal folk. When politicians fill cricket boards with their musclemen and errand boys (such as Mr. Srinavasan), the system essentially invites match-fixers, bookies and all the other scum that moves across our stadia and pavilions. The only reason Butt & Co. got jailed is because the PCB is as fragile as the country they represent. There is no way in hell that an Indian player would have even faced trial, forget actually serving time.

But the times are changing. Transparency is the new buzz word. Sensibilities are improving amongst the administrative folk. But a lot more needs to be done. There has to be an earnest effort in finding out who else is involved in this sick evil scam. Past and present. The Akmal brothers and Wahab Riaz have been named during the course of the trial. They need to be investigated. A few Indian names too have cropped up. We need to go after these morons with all the might and vengeance that we can muster. Does not matter if we are faced with uncomfortable situations, with big names coming out. Go after those buggers too.

The ICC too needs to shake things up a bit. Life bans would be in order for those found guilty. What the hell does a 5 year ban with 2 suspended even mean? It is absurd to imagine that a player can come back after being punished for crimes of this magnitude. Players who sell their souls, deserve no sympathy. If Salman Butt was worried about his to-be-born kid, he should have just played better. He was a young captain, with the support of the board, what more could he have asked for? Apparently a lot. Well the cricket field is not the place for it. I can give him the address of a person who knows a thing or two about making money on the side. He stays at Clifton Street, Karachi.

Closer home the BCCI needs to address the many burning issues threatning the very essence of the sport. They somehow swapped match-fixing with the IPL,  but the players stay the same. The unholy nexus of politicians and corporates needs to be undone on the administrative side. Let the ex-players manage the show. If we go on the way we have since 2000, it wont be too long before one of ours is caught in a situation similar to that of the Pakistanis. And that would be the end of it. Screw the IPL, screw test cricket, screw the big names. Fans would just stop loving the game as they always have.

1,000 to 1

These are not odds for lasting peace to be achieved in the Middle East. It is the ratio of the number of prisoners being released by Israel to get one off their back from Hamas. 1 : 1,027 to be exact. At first look it seems naive that a government would enter into a deal with known enemies, releasing people who have been involved in many cases of killings and bombings. Even if a small percentage of the 1,000 go back to their struggle (and they will) there would be a price to pay in the not so distant future. Yet the Israelis chose to get the one man that got left behind, while he is still alive rather than get bogged down by what might happen in the future.

But concepts like these are difficult to grapple if you live in a country like ours. Where individual lives do not mean as much, where we respect people according to  lineage, profession, economic class and every other conceivable point of differentiation. No matter how much one may disagree with the policies adopted by the Israeli government, their steadfast, unwavering support of every single citizen is commendable. What the Israelis understand is that each person in their country matters. No matter what their contribution to the greater good is.

A nation is built collectively by the people, by a people respected individually. It is this idea that we need to appreciate in this country. We however, function under the pressures of different regional or religious interests. It is the sheer absence of respect for the individual that we need to address. In our country, if a person is not aligned with a political party or even smaller powerful sub-groups like civil servants, judiciary, police, local corporators, doctors or whatever classification strong enough to have influence, things can get very difficult. It is not only corruption that is rotting our core, we as a country have no patience for individuals.

It is time we place the Indian Citizen ahead of every other classification, and god knows we have enough of those! Our much touted diversity makes it all the more important that we dont give in to appeasing any one class. If each person could feel important, could feel that they can contribute; things will be much different. It is time we ‘ask what our country can do for me’ instead of the other way around.

Of Chest Pains and Uneasiness

The provident coincidence with which our politicians suffer from chest pains is legendary. Almost always immediately after a politician is arrested s/he is taken to a hospital post complaints of chest pain and uneasiness. I too would be uneasy if I were facing possible jail time, even if it was for a day. It is the ‘chest pains’ which gets my goat.

We really need a deeper look into this. Is it something all politicians eat, is it the ultra-white clothing, are the ambassadors they ride in ejecting fumes inducing chest pains or maybe it is that a politician’s body reacts to being out of work by an unbearable pain in the upper body area. Whatever it is we need to arrest this problem immediately. Not arrest maybe, just diagnose it. In a government hospital with friendly doctors.

People should not be surprised that our politicians suffer from endemic chest problems. In some cases a few politicians are handicapped by their lineage. Most politicians are either sons/daughters or in-laws of existing politicians. It is hard to escape the chest pain disease for these poor souls. Predisposed to similar working environs and moral fibre there is a very low statistical chance of escaping the common path a politician’s predecessors have been on. A few smart ones though, have found ways around the chest pain disease. They have managed to rise to positions where arrests and court cases mean nothing. Indeed, a select few do not even have to face such trivial procedures a democracy so uselessly subjects normal folk to.

A solution has to be found nonetheless. Politicians claiming to be suffering at the time of arrests should be made to undergo emergency medical procedures, like an open heart surgery or a brain transplant or something. The results will be fantastic! Not only would we have cured the illness that affects the existing lot vegetating in hospitals, the outcome of such procedures would deter others from feigning illness.  After all it is the duty of the nation to take care of the truly sick (minded).

Come to think of it, the earnestness with which we take care of our sick politicians might provide an answer to our health care problems. People who do not enjoy access to medical facilities should take to petty crime. All they have to do is wait to get arrested and then complain of chest pains. Voila! And they will be admitted to a hospital right away! I kid of course; but it is time we got serious about delivering justice and not looking like fools when it comes to investigating and prosecuting the high and mighty.

Losing the Plot

The recent decisions taken by the opposition and the civil society to undertake a yatra and to oppose the Congress in the Hisar by-elections are evidence of the fact that the concerned parties have lost the plot. It does not take much to see through the BJP and Advani’s real intentions behind undertaking the so called journey against corruption; they should have started the journey from Bellary if they were really sincere!

However, India Against Corruption’s (IAC) decision to oppose the Congress in a by-election is baffling to say the least. Even if one does not doubt their intentions. I believe that Kejriwal and Co. have got it wrong this time with their ill-advised move to affect political change. Their ignorance of how electoral politics works and the isolation of a political party from the larger system is going back on the principal understanding of why corruption thrives in this country. By asking people to vote against a particular party is to mistakenly believe that they (the congress) are different from the others. A look at the opposition candidates in this by-election easily reinforces their inherent similarities. The main opposition candidates are sons of earlier chief ministers, neither of whom have a clean track record. So what is it the IAC is trying to achieve here? By aligning itself against the Congress the movement is ignoring the very things that are wrong with the system that they claim to be fighting.

There is so much that is wrong with the stand taken by the IAC movement that one cannot help but wonder what the hell were they thinking? Firstly, to assume that the congress alone is responsible for bringing the bill to the parliament is as stupid as saying that politicians alone can change the way we function as a country. Though the congress is the ruling party of the day, the IAC also needs to understand the essential similarities of how the government works, irrespective of which party (ies) occupies the ruling benches. It has to be an inclusive process, with all the opposition parties working with the government towards a serious well-meaning bill. To forcibly put the onus on the ruling party is to absolve everyone else off their duties.

Secondly, what does a by-election in Hisar have to do with the Jan Lokpal Bill? Some might argue that it has a lot to do with everyone in this country. But what about the local issues that the electorate might want to address? Does the Lokpal Bill take precedence over those; are local issues not important anymore? Why does Hisar get to bear the burden of an issue which is of national importance, is it only because Mr. Kejriwal hails from the city? Don’t the people of Hisar deserve a fair chance to discuss and decide on issues that affect them and them alone; without an ex-inhabitant hijacking their right to decide for their own good?

Thirdly, the PM, uncharacteristically may I add, has been in regular touch with Anna Hazare over the Lokpal issue. Why is there a sudden panicked rush to deliver ultimatums and threats to the ruling party? Why can’t they just wait till the damn winter session? I share their cynicism about how things get caught up in our legendary bureaucratic processes but there are other ways to keep the pressure up than resorting to such childish immature ploys.

Lastly, the almost militant manner in which the IAC is behaving is bound to make people think twice about their intentions and the means adopted. To achieve what they have set out to do, they will need constant public support. Shenanigans like these will alienate people, for most people politics is a disease you keep away from. With the IAC taking an open stand against one particular party, they are eroding their own support base. People who came together for a common cause, against the political system; not the congress or Kapil Sibal or Khurshid, will feel confused about the new strategies being adopted. This latest ploy will only serve as a distraction and the goodwill and momentum that the IAC had managed to gain will be dented.

When this election is over, no matter what the result is; everybody except the politicians would have lost something. The people of Hisar - a fair chance to affect change on their own will, the IAC - a lot of goodwill, the Jan Lokpal Movement – time.